Kabir’s ten-rupee trick to ensure safety of ballot boxes
Believing the government was planning to switch ballot boxes at last week’s presidential election, while they were being transported to counting centres, Kegalle District UNP MP Kabir Hashim asked some of his supporters to drop ten rupee currency notes into ballot boxes at selected polling booths in the Mawanella electorate for identification purposes.
UNP agents at the counting centres were relieved when they saw ten rupee currency notes in each ballot box as they felt they could comfortably secure the Mawanella electorate nursed by Hashim. But manual counting saw President Mahinda Rajapaksa bagging the electorate by polling 32,335 votes whereas Opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka obtained 27,039. (SF)
Believing the government was planning to switch ballot boxes at last week’s presidential election, while they were being transported to counting centres, Kegalle District UNP MP Kabir Hashim asked some of his supporters to drop ten rupee currency notes into ballot boxes at selected polling booths in the Mawanella electorate for identification purposes.
UNP agents at the counting centres were relieved when they saw ten rupee currency notes in each ballot box as they felt they could comfortably secure the Mawanella electorate nursed by Hashim. But manual counting saw President Mahinda Rajapaksa bagging the electorate by polling 32,335 votes whereas Opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka obtained 27,039. (SF)
