Manjula Gajanayake, Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy, Reform, and Election Studies, has raised concerns over the disappearance of three presidential candidates from this year’s election roster. According to Gajanayake, who has been scrutinizing the election process, there is a lack of information about these candidates, highlighting potential issues within the election framework.
Out of the 39 candidates who initially entered the presidential race, one has recently passed away, though their identity has yet to be officially disclosed. Gajanayake expressed concerns about this lack of transparency and suggested that there should be a replacement for the deceased candidate if there was an organized process.
Gajanayake noted that only 15 of the 38 remaining candidates have been actively engaged, with meetings held involving at least 10 individuals from this group. However, among the remaining 23 candidates, three are reportedly missing. Attempts to contact these individuals using the telephone numbers provided to the Election Commission have been unsuccessful, with two numbers leading to unrelated parties and the third being disconnected.
Further complicating the situation, five of the remaining candidates do not even have social media profiles, and there has been no photographic documentation or media presence for at least three candidates. The effort to upload passport-size photographs of all 39 candidates to a dedicated website has also been hampered by communication issues with the remaining 24 individuals.
Gajanayake’s observations underscore concerns about the credibility and organization of the election process, questioning the authenticity and engagement of a significant portion of the candidates.
