Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

The main opposition UNP led United National Front (UNF) alliance is facing further defections.
Among those tipped to pole-vault is Sri Ranga Jayaratnam, the former MTV personality who contested on the UPF ticket. Sri Ranga, who led a newly registered political party named Purawesi Peramuna (Citizens Front), fell out with the crisis hit UNP leadership over the non allocation of a national list seat to his party. Sri Ranga stayed in parliament when the opposition walked out from the House in protest against preventing DNA leader Gen (retired) Fonseka from attending parliament on Wednesday. Continue Reading

Director General of the Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC) Anusha Pelpita quelled rumours spread by an SMS which warned mobile users to beware of calls from some mobile numbers saying answering the calls received from the numbers would cause serious brain damage.
“A text message was circulating yesterday creating panic among mobile users. The text message warned people not to answer calls from some numbers because those numbers would emit a high frequency sound wave and cause brain haemorrhage. Continue Reading

Lawyers representing veteran journalist J. S Tissainayagam who was pardoned by the president on May 3rd will meet officials of the Attorney General’s (AGs) department in the coming week to discuss his pardon said lawyer and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. A Sumanthiran
“The pardon was an announcement by Minister of External Affairs Prof G. L Peiris but so far the pardon has not been granted. I don’t think that the government will go back on its word after making a public announcement,” Sumanthiran said. Continue Reading

Health authorities were of the view that there was a dengue epidemic in the island, as health authorities have not taken necessary measures to combat the epidemic. During the last four months 13,000 people were infected with dengue fever and 75 of them have died.
Meanwhile, recently officials of the dengue eradicating programme met Dr.P.B.Jayasundara, secretary to the treasury and requested for Rs.200 million to eradicate the dengue menace. Continue Reading

The new Minister of Internal Trade Johnston Fernando deferred planned imports of poultry products, meant to compensate for shortfall in production.
The All Island Poultry Association (AIPA) agreed to increase production of broiler and eggs to make-good the dearth in production, AIPA Chairman, Dr D D Wanasinghe said.
AIPA, who say they are the voice of the 85,000 poultry farmers in the country, was asked to show data of local chicken and egg production and to produce tangible figures to back up their claim that many factors ail the poultry industry. Continue Reading

Research conducted by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) found that students who pass the GCE Ordinary Level Examination do not receive a standard scholarship as compared to fifth grade students who receive the Grade 5 Scholarship, and university students who benefit from the Mahapola Scholarship Fund.
‘Given this situation, we started the SLRCS A/L scholarship programme to provide financial assistance to students who pass the O/L Examination with exceptional results, but cannot continue their education due to poor financial conditions. Continue Reading

‘The 2008 voter registry has names of over 400 000 who don’t live there’

Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake is not the most popular man around at this point in time. Almost everyone who praised him in the past claiming he is an exceptional government servant has now either filed a petition against him or are openly calling him an ‘incompetent old man’.
United National Part (UNP) General Secretary Tissa Attanayake filed a petition against him early this month charging him of incompetence and bias at the January 26th elections. His actions at the Thursday’s General Election also drew fire from all opposition politicians as well as independent monitors.

Man of inaction

The commissioner’s refusal to excercise his powers has made a lot of people lose their faith in the electoral process. Network for Election Monitoring Media Coordinator, Wijaya Kurukulasuriya claimed that although a many entities lost their independence and their bond to politicians increased when the government refused to implement the 17th amendment, it increased the power of the elections commissioner.
“The non implementation of the 17th amendment gave significant powers to the Elections Commissioner. He was given enough powers to commandeer the police if they refuse to obey his orders,” he said.
“During both the presidential and general elections, the commissioner was satisfied sending circulars to various officials. Traditionally that’s the way government operates but that only ‘works’ if the others accept the circulars. Although he keeps sending circular after circular to the state media chiefs, ministry secretaries and the IGP, when they refused or ignored the circulars, he did not pursue the matter,” he said.
“The commissioner appointed a competent authority weeks after we implored him but he did not give him enough power to do anything about the unlawful behaviour of the state media.”
The commissioner should have gone to the Supreme Court when the general election was announced and got a directive about the limits of his powers and what to do if some official refuses to carry out his orders.
“Our logic was that there was no point in sending directives and circulars since they were blatantly ignored by officials. There was no point in starting back at one; the commissioner should have started where he left off but he ignored us and repeated the same steps and we ended up having one of the most lawless elections in history.”
Failure
The presidential and general elections held this year has been named as two of the most corrupt in our history. Political parties and civil society organizations have alleged mass misuse of state property and blatant abuse of state media. The situation deteriorated this far because the commissioner turned a blind eye when systematic intimidation and misuse of state property commenced in the provincial council elections.
“The Eastern provincial council election was a very corrupt election; state property was misused and there were armed groups operating in the area and the commissioner could have done something about this. But since he did not take any action, people have become more brazen and now no one gives a damn about the commissioner himself. Everyone has become brazen because they know that there are no repercussions.”
The lack of law enforcement and the indulgent attitude of the commissioner towards such incidents have led to instances in which some government MPs acted as provincial rulers said Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon.
“There is no proper law enforcement in the country. Mahindananda Aluthgamage ruled Nawalapitiya like a despot and everyone had to obey his rules. Even government candidates such as S. B Dissanayake, Keheliya Rambukwella and Faizser Musthapha were not allowed to campaign in Nawalapitiya. We regularly focussed attention of the Commissioner about this and the election commissioner promised to provide STF and Army guards to areas such as Nawalapitiya where everyone expected trouble. But he broke that promise and the whole country saw what happened,” Tennakoon said. The elections commissioner even refused to suspend the counting of the Nawalapitiya electorate ballots until the election monitors made residents of the area fax affidavits stating that there were massive scale election law violations.
“When we complained about Nawalapitiya, the commissioner spoke to the OIC who claimed that no incidents were reported. Then we had to talk to the people in the area and fax affidavits to the elections commissioner stating that mass scale election law violations had taken place. But he allowed the counting to take place till midnight and then we had to meet him again and we finally convinced him to re poll only at 2 am,” Kurukulasuriya said.

Coming election in the North

The right to vote is one of the most fundamental of human rights and the elections commissioner is the guardian of that right. But in both the presidential and general elections the citizens of the North and the IDPs were deprived of this right.
“The voter turnout in the North and the East was very low. There were no transport facilities for the IDPs again. The buses provided for the IDPs were taken by the goons of the Minister of Rehabilitation and resettlement Rishard Bathiutheen,” Tennakoon said.
The Department of Elections used the 2008 voter registry for the North in both elections this year.
The registry which is outdated includes the names of over 400 000 individuals who no longer live in the area. The department should amend the voter registry before the Northern Provincial Council election scheduled at the end of this year.
“The 2008 voter registry is a joke. The registry has names of over 400 000 individuals who do not live in the area now. This is not a joke; disenfranchising people never bodes well for the future of a country,” Tennakoon said.

Last week the Maharajah Group of Companies’ head office at Braybrooke Place, Colombo came under attack over a caper apprently involving famous hip-hop star Akon who was scheduled to perform in Colombo next month.
It is said that this attack was well planned and organized allegedly by a notorious north-of-Colombo politician. The man behind the attack is a well known politico embittered with Sirasa TV —- a character who goes into a frenzy when he sees the cameras of Sirasa TV.
The attack on Sirasa this time comes apprently due to hip-hop star Akon. His concert was scheduled to take place on April 24 and the details of this African American hip-hop star’s impending arrival were revealed on March 17 at a press conference held at the Cinnamon Grand.

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UPFA candidate for the Ratnapura District, Vasudeva Nanayakkara says that he will continue to agitate against corrupI believe that the people’s opinion will finally prevail and public opinion will rise in time which can eradicate corruption. I don’t think that any government can seriously find fault with any representative of the public for carrying out a crusade against corruption and shut the voice against corruption. I had freedom to carry out my struggle against corruption. President Mahinda Rajapaksa thanked me for my battle to secure the Insurance Corporation back to people.

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UNP candidate for Colombo District Karunasena Kodituwakku in an interview with Lakbim News refuted the allegations that the UNP list has only a few Buddhists but says that the UNP is confident of winning the election.

Excerpts:

You can see a Sinhalese -Buddhist majority in the list that has been presented from the government and the opposition for the General Elections. Yet, this is not the case regarding the UNP. How do you see this?

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