The Presidents proclamation no 1629/08 relating to the Presidential Election to be held on January 26, 2010 is published in the Gazette of November 23, 2009. According to clause 104 A of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution the period from the date of the proclamation of the election upto the date of publication of results is termed ‘the election period’.

The restrictions on the misuse of Government resources mentioned in this notification is applicable to the election period.

Under the terms of section 104 A (4) of the Constitution the Elections Commission is empowered to prohibit the use of movable or immovable property belonging to the State or any State corporation to promote or prevent the election of any candidate. (Read More)

He said he will not allow the war heroes to be taken before a war crimes tribunal.

“The forthcoming Presidential Election is a contention between the grateful and the ungrateful,” he said. The President said the country could not have achieved victory over terrorism which claimed thousands of innocent lives without the Security Forces and the Government protested actions by certain quarters of the country to disgrace them.

“We raised our voice against sinister elements that attempted to undermine the Security Forces’ achievement in the North and the East. The Opposition levelled baseless allegations against the Security Forces that played a key role in the liberation of Sri Lanka from the clutches of the LTTE terrorism,” he said.  (Read More)

The joint Opposition yesterday challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to come for a public debate on political issues at a joint press conference.

The challenge was thrown by JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe who chaired a joint press conference together with common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickrmesighe and other opposition parties.

Mr. Amarasinghe said it was a civilized society that won a great victory on May 17 this year but the government had created an uncivilized society instead by now.

“The uncivilized government is engaged in burning the offices of other political parties today,” he charged. (Read More)

While dismissing the allegations made by Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka  the government yesterday vowed that legal opinion will be sought to take action against what it called the ‘malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka and the armed forces’.

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing a hurriedly convened press briefing at the Media Center for National Security said yesterday that the statement made to a weekend newspaper by General Sarath Fonseka was very damaging locally and internationally.

“This is a great betrayal against his former boss, colleagues and soldiers of the armed forces who fought the war side by side against a common enemy. We have no doubt that the baseless allegations are for personnel gains,” Minister Smarasinghe stressed. (Read More)

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said both the LTTE and the JVP launched their respective terror campaigns against the democratically elected governments by attacking police stations as there was a close link between the people and the police. Addressing Police officers at the Temple Trees, President Rajapaksa said the JVP attacked police stations in 1971 during their first uprising against the government and the LTTE overpowered 16 police stations in 1982 and started their destructive trail of terrorism.

“We have seen the Police Department going through very distressing periods.  The terrorists once killed over 700 policemen in the East in cold blood after they had surrendered with white flags on the orders of the government.

The oft used tactic of the LTTE when it wanted to scuttle security forces operations in the North was to explode bombs in the city.

However, the Police Department was able to protect Colombo and suburbs from terror campaigns with their highly commendable performances,” President Rajapaksa said. (Read More)

Police chief Mahinda Balasuriya yesterday said that he had special instructions from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remove all cutouts, posters, floats and banners put up in the run up to the Presidential Election even before the day the nominations were received.

“The election law is applied normally after the nominations are received. But President Rajapaksa instructed me to remove all election related posters and cutouts immediately. President Rajapaksa asked me to start removing them with his propaganda materials,” Mr. Blasuriya said.

He vowed that the election law would be applied to the letter after the nominations were received on the 17th as posters, cutouts, floats and banners are banned from public places during the Presidential election campaign according to the election law.  “We expect to start removing all election related propaganda materials of President Rajapaksa put up by UPFA from Colombo from today. (Read More)

The country does not need a domineering leadership. The people are looking for a leader who is friendly and faithful to them, Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.

Addressing a meeting at the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry, de Silva said the Opposition will never be able to win power. The power struggle within the Opposition has already commenced.

The Opposition Leader is trying to be the executive Prime Minister while the Presidential Candidate is talking about not being another William Gopallawa, he said.

The three groups which have ‘united’ to grab power have entirely different policies, objectives and characteristics. The JVP killed around 2,000 UNPers during the1988–1989 insurgency. (Read More)

Though there are nearly 20 Lakhs persons without identity cards, the registration of persons Dept. has decided to print temporary cards for them for the forthcoming Presidential elections. The CAFFE organization has pointed out that there is room to suspect there will be a fraud in respect of this issue fo cards.

According to the voters list of 2008, there are 1.955,312 voters without ID cards. Yet, the Elections Commissions Dept. has printed one million cards and the registration of persons Dept. 2.6 million cards. That is a total of 3.6 million cards.

The temporary ID cards were used for election frauds during the Northern Provincial Council elections in the same way. Therefore the production of temporary cards by the Registration of persons Dept. is questionable.

By printing ID cards at two places, the issue of two cards to an individual is likely.

As two depts. are producing the same thing, chances for fraud are huge. (as they are not properly co ordinating)

ID cards can be issued even to those whose names are not in the voters list.

For certification, the officers involved are Govi authorized officer, Samurdhi officers, JPs. These officers are all political appointees.

The employees of Government Press at Borella engaged in a protest campaign today noon against the removal of a cutout with the photograph of Gen. Sarath Fonseka fixed at the premises of the press.

An unknown gang that had arrived yesterday (11th) night had removed the cutout and according to information it has been carried out on orders from the top.

However, nothing has been done to the cutout having Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse’s photograph that was next to the cutout removed.