The Elections Commission has written to former Speaker of Parliament Chamal Rajapaksa seeking explanation about how the names of several foreign citizens were listed as electors at the Rajapaksa family home in Medamulana in 2005, as it continues its inquiry into an alleged voter fraud allegation, the Sunday Observer reliably learns.
On September 2, the Commission was officially notified that a letter had been sent to the former Speaker, it is learnt.
The Commission has ascertained that Chamal Rajapaksa, the eldest of the Rajapaksa family, was listed as the householder at the Medamulana ancestral home in the electoral register, the Sunday Observer learns.
The move comes amid statements by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that “20 CID officials had been dispatched to Weeraketiya” to dig up old voter registry records.
Extracts of the Mulkirigala electoral register from 2005 were first published in this newspaper on August 11. Soon after publication, Anidda Deputy Editor Lasantha Ruhunuge lodged a formal complaint with the Elections Commission demanding an inquiry. Polls monitor the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence also demanded an impartial investigation into the allegation of voter fraud against Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
According to the complaint filed by Ruhunuge, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa (male) No 130, Ioma Rajapaksa (female) No 131, Dudley Piyasiri Rajapaksa (male) 139 and Basil Rohana Rajapaksa (male) were listed as electors in the Register published by the Elections Department for the Mulkirigala Polling Division, Weeraketiya, Medamulana area in 2005. These individuals were not Sri Lankan citizens at the time, the complaint added. The complainant urged the Commission to determine whether the foreign nationals had voted in the 2005 presidential poll in which their sibling Mahinda Rajapaksa was contesting as a candidate.
Meanwhile, the CID has launched an investigation into former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s citizenship, dual citizenship and immigration issues, following two complaints lodged by civil society activists, Sunday Observer learns.
Controller General Immigration and Emigration R.M.P.S.B. Ratnayake told the Sunday Observer that on Friday, the Department had forwarded the information requested by the CID. The CID requested documents and information pertaining to the
newly issued passport to SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa. By his own admission, Rajapaksa obtained a new passport on May 7, purportedly claiming that he was no longer a dual citizen.
Police investigations into the alleged voter fraud complaint pertaining to the Mulkirigala Electoral Register entry and Rajapaksa’s own admission that he arrived in Sri Lanka on a tourist visa to assist his brother’s election campaign have also commenced, Sunday Observer learns.