The Police had received 116 complaints from the date the election was announced on March 2 until 6.00 am yesterday (06), Police Media Spokesman SSP Jaliya Senaratne said.
Of this number, 49 were in relation to attacks and causing injuries, while 47 complaints were of threatening and intimidation and the rest were complaints of mischief. The majority of complaints were reported from Ampara (18), Batticaloa (16) and Anuradhapura (10), SSP Senaratne said.
Speaking to the Daily News, he said that there were 350 election violations reported and of them 177 were police detections, while the rest were public complaints. The highest number of election violations were reported from Embilipitiya with 55 complaints, followed by 36 complaints from Kantale and 25 complaints from Ampara.
The police had arrested 543 persons in connection with such violations during the period from March 2 until last morning. In addition, 166 vehicles had also been taken into police custody. Meanwhile, SSP Senaratne also noted that the CID had arrested two Army soldiers in connection with the detection of a haul of weapons in Pitipana, Homagama, in July.
On July 1, the police found a stock of weapons including seven grenades at a house in Pitipana North, Homagama. The house was raided by Homagama Police on the information provided by the State Intelligence Service. Two body armours, a repeater shotgun with four live bullets, and four unidentified weapons were among the weapons.
The Police Spokesman said that having received information regarding the involvement of the two Army soldiers, the police had informed the Army Commander and the two soldiers were located and arrested. They were handed over to the CID for further investigations.