Sri Lanka, May 9 -- Colombo, May 9 () - The government's development drive ahead of the presidential election met with stiff resistance from the Election Commission (EC) which barred the involvement of political representatives of the ruling side in any such activities, an official said.

The EC looked into a complaint from the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), a poll observer group, about the impact of the involvement of politicians to carry out election propaganda in the guise of carrying out development work at divisional secretariats areas.

The government has instructed all district secretaries to take measures to complete development projects using money allocated under the decentralized budget before July 31. T...