Sri Lankan police have arrested a Tamil school principal in Mullaitivu for photographing his ballot after voting for the Tamil common candidate.
The principal was one of thousands of postal voters who cast their ballots ahead of the upcoming Presidential election on September 21st. A total of 712,319 voters were eligible to use postal voting to cast their vote in the 2024 presidential election.
The principal, whose name has been withheld, was voting at a school in Puthukudiyiruppu when he took a photo of his ballot paper on his mobile phone to show his vote for the Tamil common candidate. A station officer reported the incident to the Mullaitivu Elections Officer. Upon inspecting the phone and finding the photo, election officials determined that photographing a ballot paper violated election rules and constituted an offense. He was later released on police bail.