Colombo: In an unprecedented move, Sri Lanka's election chief today (Mar 29, 2004) took over State-owned radio and television stations, following charges that they were being used as propaganda organs for President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party.

Independent Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said he appointed a "competent authority" under new powers vested with him in line with a constitutional amendment of 2001 to run stations until the conclusion of Friday's Parliamentary election.

"By virtue of powers vested in me under the 17th amendment to the constitution, I have appointed W D L Perera as the competent authority of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) and the State Rupavahini (SLRC) with immediate effect, until the conclusion of the Parliamentary election," Dissanayake said in a statement.

Independent poll monitors as well as political parties had charged that the SLRC television channel and the SLBC were being used as organs of the President's Freedom Alliance.

Perera is a civil servant who had been a deputy at the Elections Commission earlier.

SLRC chairman Harim Peiris said he was not aware of the move.

This is the first time in the country's electoral history that the State-controlled media has been brought under an independent authority during an election.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga called for elections four years ahead of schedule after a feud with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is elected separately and is from a rival party.