After weeks of pleading by opposition political parties and election monitoring bodies the Elections Commissioner has at last appointed Jayampathi Hettiarachchi as the competent authority to monitor the government media in the run-up to the Presidential elections. The plan is to ensure free and fair coverage by state media institutions, UNP MP Tissa Attanayake said after meeting with the Commissioner on December 29th.

Although this step has been heralded by many as the best thing that has happened so far. Almost five days after his appointment nothing seems to have changed. One might say that the state media is reacting to the appointment just like the way it responded to the 21 media guidelines introduced on December 17th. (Read More)

A Police Special Task Force‘circular’ or leaflet sent out in support of President Mahinda Rajapaksa ahead of the January 26 Presidential election has sparked a political explosion.

In a letter to Police chief Mahinda Balasuriya, the opposition common candidate, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, has asked that immediate action be taken to remove the officers who had issued or endorsed the circular from their present duties.

“I also hold you responsible for the unlawful actions of your subordinate officers, as you have failed in your sacred duty in ensuring impartiality of the Police Force,” Gen. Fonseka said in the letter. (Read More)

Covert plans by a Gampaha District politician of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance to buy ballot papers from drug addicts, alcoholics and poverty-stricken people have been exposed, the Sunday Times learns.

The plans were discussed at length during a closed door meeting the politician had with several associates, according to complaints made to the Elections Commissioner.

The modus operandi appears to be simple. A prospective seller will be instructed to enter the polling booth and collect his/hers ballot paper from the election officials after furnishing the required documents. He or she is expected to bring the unmarked ballot paper concealed in his clothing and obtain the fee. (Read More)

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has directed the heads of the state-owned Rupavahini Corporation and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation to allocate time for opposition common candidate General Sarath Fonseka to counter allegations made against him in programmes aired by them.

The commissioner’s move came after Gen Fonseka sent a letter to him, seeking an opportunity to respond to the allegations, some of which cast aspersions on his character.

The Commissioner, in guidelines issued to the media earlier, said that an opportunity to reply to allegations should be provided by the respective media institutions if any statement was carried against any candidate.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake is yet to make the formal appointment of a Competent Authority to monitor the state-run electronic media during the Presidential election campaign despite assurances he has given to opposition political parties.

A former Government Agent Jayampathy Hettiarachchi has been named as the nominee for the post but is yet to receive the formal letter of appointment, the Sunday Times learns.

An office within the Elections Secretariat is being set up for this purpose. He is to be appointed under the powers granted to the Elections Commissioner in terms of the Competent Authority (Powers and Functions) Act of 2002.

The law gives the Competent Authority wide ranging powers including supervision and control over programmes. He is also empowered to ensure compliance with certain conditions including accuracy and impartiality in news presented by these media institutions as well as ensuring programmes do not include anything which is against good taste or decency, incite a person to commit a crime or lead to disorder, offend racial or religious susceptibilities or offend public feeling.

Some 5,000 out of around 50,000 applications sent by displaced persons in the North hoping to vote at this month’s Presidential election have been found to be duplicated, according to the Elections Department.

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), an independent election monitoring group, has taken up the matter with the Elections Commissioner, who has promised to cancel the duplicated applications, according to CaFFE spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon.

The Elections Department is still in the process of scrutinising applications sent in.

(Note by CaFFE - According to the CaFFE sources there are 3000+ duplicate applications by the Jan. 1st, 2010 most of them came from Mannar, Jaffna and Puttalam.)

Election observers are coming out strongly over police failure to maintain law and order ahead of the January 26 Presidential election, as reports of polls-related intimidation and violence continue to come in from around the country.

Given the obvious keen contest, the main opposition, the UNF says that the Tamil and Muslim vote at the election would be a decisive factor. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Democratic People’s Front leader Mano Ganesan and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem are now engaged in a relentless effort to secure the support of the Tamil and Muslim political parties for the common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka.

Against this backdrop, the attention of all political analysts and political parties is now being focussed on the main Tamil political grouping, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which will decide whom they will support at the presidential election at the party’s parliamentary group meeting to be held at the parliamentary complex tomorrow.(Read More)

There will be 68 cluster polling booths in the Kilinochchi District for the forthcoming Presidential election.

With the view to easing the voting of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are resettled in Kilinochi, it has been decided to set up 68 cluster polling booths at the Kilinochchi Rodrigo playground. This decision was taken by the Kilinochchi GA’s office when the high officials met to decide about providing the voting facilities to the recently resettled people.

Additional Election Commissioner S. Srivardhana, Deputy Commissioner for IDPs S. Shanmugam, Jaffna District Government Agent K. Ganesh, Jaffna Deputy Election Commissioner P. Kuhanathan and many other officials participated in the meeting.

These officials also visited Pooneryn region in the Kilinochchi District and decided on the installation of voting centres in that area. IDPs have already been resettled in a total of 19 Grama Niladari divisions and it has been decided to facilitate them with twelve voting centres, to be set up in the schools in the region.

It has also been decided to set up eight voting centres in the Karachchi region.

Former UNP Treasurer and Bandaragama organiser Tilak Karunaratne pledged support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday addressing a rally in Kalutara.

He earlier resigned from all posts he held in the UNP protesting against remarks made by the party leadership regarding the JHU monks and the Thoppigala military victory.

He resigned from the post of treasurer and from the Working Committee, Administrative Committee, Management Committee and the Religious Affairs Committee.