Chief ministerial candidate Rauff Hakeem told ‘Lanka Dissent’ that the Ministry of Defence has ordered service providers to interrupt mobile phone services in the Eastern Province, which goes to polls tomorrow (May 10th).
He also said that the government was preparing to stage a massive vote rigging on election day and the move seems to prevent the outside world from getting information on those violations in the East.
As a former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mr. Hakeem said the Defence Ministry could give such orders only on matters pertaining to national security.
The chief ministerial candidate added that he would initiate legal action against any service provider and other responsible officials if such undue interruptions are effected tomorrow.
3 Comments
chanuka
This is unconfirmed news, but we publish here because if true it is a serious policy issue.
Please feel free to discuss.
Sanjana
The Centre for Monitoring Elections Violence (CMEV) has called upon the Elections Commissioner to take action to prevent this from happening. See http://cmev.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/cmev-bulletin-of-9th-may-2008-2200hrs-1st-release/
Anand Varghese
I have a question: now that the election is over, do we have any confirmed reports that cell phone networks were in fact blocked? Thanks.
Request for Proposals: Development of a website for the Asia AI4D Observatory
LIRNEasia is inviting proposals from qualified web development firms, service providers and consortia of individual professionals to design, develop and deploy a public-facing website for the Asia AI4D Observatory. The website is intended to serve as a searchable, interactive regional knowledge repository and engagement platform, making evidence and resources on responsible artificial intelligence easy to discover, use and share.
LIRNEasia is hiring: Intern – Data Annotation
LIRNEasia is looking for a talented individual to join the team as an Data Annotation Intern. The full job description is available below.
Sri Lanka at WAIC 2026: Aligning with a More Inclusive Vision for Global AI Governance
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026 was held in Shanghai from 17–20 July and brought global attention to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the increasingly important question of who gets to shape the rules governing it. This analysis examines the alignment between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech and Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eng.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific