Sri Lanka’s Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya says that he never made a statement that a conspiracy did not take place in the early hours of January 9, when the results of the Presidential Poll were being announced.

Deshapriya charged that news reports in websites claiming that he said so were “absolute lies.”

The Elections Chief said that investigations are still ongoing to determine whether there had been a coup attempt and that he cannot make a statement on the subject until the investigations is concluded.

He also refuted claims that security personnel had entered counting centers located at the D.S. Senanayake College and Royal College in Colombo, saying there was no truth to such reports.

Deshapriya stated that Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel were stationed at the countering centers across the island and, however, conceded that he had received complaints regarding the presence of security forces personnel at certain locations in Colombo and Negombo.

However, he said that there was no attempt to prevent the release of election results and that there had been a delay in releasing results between 3.18-4.11am on January 9.

He accredited the delay to a technical difficulty experienced by the Colombo University’s School of Computing, which was providing technical assistance to the elections department, and not a fault by him or his officials.