Coordinator of the UNP Polls Watch Thusitha Halloluwa has conveyed the matter in writing to the Elections Commissioner.

Under this inducement Mobitel, also known as Mobitel Telecom which is government-run, has decided to provide some 550,000 retired State employees with telephones which has been brought to the notice of the Elections Commissioner.

It is said to be a sinister plan to promote President Mahinda Rajapaksa's election campaign through such a scheme.

As a result all 550,000 retired State employees will be provided with telephones along with a message from the President exhorting them to vote for him at the January 8 election.

The National Youth Services Council (NYSC) has been entrusted with the task of carrying out the telephone-bribing campaign.

The NYSC has been given orders to complete the mission by January 5, 2015.

Two election malpractices have been cited in the protest letter to the Elections Commissioner. One is the enlisting of government employees from the NYSC for election propaganda and the other which gives President Mahinda Rajapaksa an unfair advantage over the other candidates in the fray who are not in a position to do the same like telephone-bribing.

"We call on the Elections Commissioner to immediately stop such an illegal activity of deploying government officials from the NYSC to carry out election propaganda work on behalf of the government", the UNP Polls Watch protest letter has conveyed to the Elections Commissioner.