PAFFREL says the 2025 local government election is the first election in which state property was not misused?

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A series of posts had been exchanged since the night before the election, indicating that Paffrel, Sri Lanka’s leading election monitoring group, had states that it had not received any complaints regarding the misuse of state property in the 2025 local government elections.  Here is how we investigated on that claim.

Social Media Posts :

A social media post was posted stating that the Paffrel organization had said, “This is the first election in history where state property was not misused.”( රාජ්‍ය දේපළ අවභාවිතා නොකළ, ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු මැතිවරණය මෙයයි”)

Facebook | Archived Link

We took steps to conduct a fact-check to determine whether the above statement is true and the Paffrel organization had made such a statement.

Fact Check :

First we checked the mainstream media to see if such a news was reported regarding a statement made by the Paffrel organization but we were unable to find such a reported news.

However, we could find that Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of the Paffrel Organization has told the media, that by mid April, around 20 incidents of misuse of state power and state property were reported regarding this year’s local government elections.

He pointed out that among them are reports regarding the use of government vehicles, several promotions of officials, and government subsidy projects.

We contacted the Executive Director of the Paffrel Organization, Rohana Hettiarachchi to further confirm this and he stated that, this local government election was an election in which minimal state power and property were used, and that state property was not used in an organized manner.

However, he further stated that this does not mean that no state property were used in the election, as state property have been used at the election. He further stated that Paffrel organization hasn’t made such a statement.

Paffrel organization has also posted a post on their official social media accounts stating that the post that is currently being shared is false.

We also inquired from the Election Commissioner General, Mr. Saman Sri Ratnayake, whether any complaints had been received regarding the misuse of state property, and he confirmed that the Election Commission had received complaints regarding the misuse of state property.

Manjula Gajanayake, Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reform and Electoral Studies, says that his organization has received minimal complaints regarding the misuse of state property.

Similarly, the mainstream media had also reported incidents related to the misuse of state property as follows. Archived Link

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Conclusion :

Our investigation shows that the social media post circulating, stating that the PAFFREL organization has states that this local government election is the first in history that did not misuse the state property is false.

The paffrel organization states that it has received complaints regarding the misuse of state property. Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of the Paffrel organization, as well as the Election Commission, and election observers also state that they have recieved complaints regarding the misues of state property at a minimal level.