Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Manjula Gajanayake said that Sajith Premadasa, Dilith Jayaweera, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Anura Kumara Disanayake spent the most for their campaign at the last Presidential election to advertise on television, radio and newspapers.
Gajanayake added that according to data collected by IRES staff, Samagi Jana Balawegaya candidate Sajith Premadasa topped the list by spending Rs. 1,582,845,019.36 for his campaign on television (Rs1,413,736,138.75) radio (Rs.37,313,591.61) and newspapers (Rs. 113,795, 288.98) alone and may have exceeded the ceiling on campaign finance set by the Election Commission when his other campaign expenditure is added.
Sri Lanka Communist Party Candidate Dilith Jayaweerawas the second highest spender on TV and newspaper campaigns with a total of Rs. 838,800,632.81 (Rs. 808,799,487.66 on television and Rs. 24,332,996.25 on newspaper advertisements, with none on radio) while former President Ranil Wickremesinghe spent the third most accounting for Rs. 613,515,122.50 for advertising on TV, radio and newspapers while President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was fourth with Rs. 271,255,927.67.
Gajanayake said that IRES had deployed its staff to monitor all main stream national newspapers, television and radio channels 24 hours a day from August 15 till 12 midnight on September 18 and had cost the institute nearly Rs. 4 million .
As National Coordinator of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence in 2019, it was Manjula Gajanayake that initiated the monitoring of campaign expenditure by candidates. The initiative was taken forward by the CMEV together with other monitoring missions and civil society organisations resulted in The Regulation of Election Expenditure Act No 3of 2023 becoming law.
The IRES boss said that the Election Commission had fixed Rs. One hundred and nine (Rs 109.00) as the maximum amount a candidate was permitted to spend per registered voter for his or her campaign at the 2024 Presidential Election, and worked out to a maximum of Rs. 1,868,298,586.00 as there were 17,140,354 voters eligible to vote at the poll.
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