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| police raid Fonseka's office, arrest opposition members |
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(Lanka-e-News 31.Jan.2010 5.15PM)Police raided the office of Sri Lanka’s losing presidential candidate on Friday and arrested 15 ex-military members of his staff, aides said, two days after troops surrounded his hotel on suspicion of a coup plot.
Gen. Sarath Fonseka lost Tuesday’s election to incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa by 1.8 million votes.
“The police Special Task Force broke into the office of Sarath Fonseka,” aide Asanka Magedara told Reuters.
Police arrested 15 of Fonseka’s supporters who were in the office at the time of the raid, and seized all the computers and mobile phones there, said Shiral Laktilake, a lawyer for Fonseka.
The move came as the European Union urged Colombo to investigate reports of “irregularities.”
Opposition spokesman Rauf Hakeem told reporters the search was an infringement of democratic rights and branded the raid government as intimidation.
“This is an assault on democracy,” Hakeem told reporters. “They are trying to intimidate us as we collect evidence of vote-rigging.” Fonseka was not at the office when the raid was carried out.
The raid came a day after the government accused the opposition of planning the assassination of President Rajapaksa. Fonseka had expressed fears the government was trying to arrest or assassinate him.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission cited alleged counting irregularities and accused Rajapaksa of blatant misuse of state resources.
“Very clearly, the question as to whether Sri Lanka is any longer capable of conducting a free and fair election has been raised in this election,” the group said in a statement.
“It is not only the electoral process that is under challenge. The very process of receiving, preserving and counting the ballot at the commissioner’s office itself is an issue that has been prominently raised.”
Fonseka said Thursday he had lodged a protest with the independent election commission and would also petition the Supreme Court for an annulment of the result.
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The government insisted the election was free and fair but the United States has pressed for a probe into the charges of vote fraud.
The European Commission too issued a statement Friday calling for an investigation.
Europe is ready to work with Rajapaksa, but is concerned about “a significant number of incidents,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
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| Courtesy: Arab News |
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