Polls monitors urge MPs to publish their asset declarations online

By Rathindra Kuruwita

All elected MPs should publish their asset declarations online to help evolve a transparent and accountable political culture, National Coordinator of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) Manjula Gajanayake told The Island yesterday.

Gajanayake said that the laws regarding asset declaration needed to be changed so that elected representatives would be compelled to hand them over in time to allow the general public to access them.

“The law says that it is mandatory for candidates to declare their assets and liabilities to the Election Commission. They must submit their declaration before taking oaths. This may sound great, but it is meaningless since the Election Commission does make public the contents of those declarations,” Gajanayake said.

“The Commission places these declarations inside a locker and since these can’t be put in the public domain; these documents can’t be called declarations”, he said.

“The new parliament should change this law. However, since this will take time, we urge all candidates to publish their assets on their official web sites and social media platforms.”

Executive Director of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Manas Makeen said that clean MPs usually handed over their asset declarations to the Elections Commission as soon as possible, while others made use of various loopholes of the law to prevent their assets being known.

Makeen added that candidates should also publish information about their campaign expenditure. “Yesterday, SJB MP Ranjan Ramanayake did so and I think others should follow suit. This can be a temporary measure until campaign finance laws are introduced,” he said.

Yesterday, the Election Commission informed all elected MPs to submit their asset declarations the district returning officers.