🚨 Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 presidential candidates miss election finance filing deadline!

⭕ All four leading candidates—Anura Dissanayake, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa, and Namal Rajapaksa—fail to declare thier election expenditures by the required deadline.

⭕ This is the first time Sri Lanka set a campaign expenditure limit under the Election Expenditure Act No. 3 of 2023, capping expenses at Rs. 109 per voter, totaling Rs. 1,868.3 million ($6 million).

⭕ Only 13 of the 38 candidates have submitted financial reports by Friday.

⭕ Candidates were required to submit within 21 days, detailing donations & media spending etc.

⭕ According to the current act a candidate violating the Act could face a maximum fine of Rs 100,000, suspension of civic rights for three years.

⭕ The Election Commission initially proposed a 7-year suspension of civic rights to prevent candidates from running again in the next election, but this did not make it into the Act.

#SriLanka #Election2024