The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said yesterday that it must understand the policies of the two main presidential candidates with regard to the ‘ethnic conflict’ before taking a decision to support one of them.

TNA Jaffna district Parliamentarian, Suresh Premachandran told Daily Mirror yesterday that both President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Common Candidate, Sarath Fonseka should reveal their stand on the ethnic conflict.

“Though the war is over, the conflict for a political solution is still there.  It has to be addressed.  Both main candidates should announce their policies first.  Only after that we can take a decision,” he said. (Read More)

The new alliance the UNP had forged was nothing new but the old UNF that was formed in 2001 but retained the elephant symbol then. But the present UNP alliance had discarded the elephant symbol and selected the Presidential candidate that the JVP had chosen losing the UNP identity, Matale District UNP Parliamentarian Nandi- mithra Ek- anayake sa- id yesterday.

Ekanayake addressing a press conference in Colombo said he would bring 35,995 members of the UNP who had decided to support the candidature of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to join the SLFP immediately and more UNPers who were elected representatives of local bodies also later to join the SLFP.

He said though UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe possessed good qualities unlike President Mahinda Rajapaksa he did not have the ability to lead his party to election victories.

President Rajapaksa was a leader with a stature and leadership qualities and did not resort to abuse.

Dissanayake addressing a media briefing now in progress at the Hotel Taj Samudra in Colombo has pledged to support the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential polls and to do his utmost to defeat the opposition alliance candidate, retired military chief, General Sarath Fonseka.

The government media reported that Dissanayake has relinquished all his posts in the opposition party. Accordingly he has resigned from the posts of national organizer of the United National Party, leader of the opposition of the Central Provincial Council and the UNP chief organizer of the Walapane electorate.

Dissanayake, who was disgruntled with the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe over the decision to support General Fonseka instead of fielding a candidate from the party, had a meeting with the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday at his residence in Hanguranketha.

According to a report in a Sri Lankan daily, Dissanayake summoned his supporters and made an emotional farewell speech following the meeting with the President.

The UNP strongman was not present at the party's 54th convention held at the Nawaloka Esplande in Welisara yesterday morning to introduce General Fonseka as the party's choice for president.

Dissanayake crossed over to the UNP in 2001 from SLFP during the Chandrika Kumaranatunga administration.

"I will expose the Rajapaksa regime of its misdeeds and rampant corruption at the opportune moment", he warned.They are engaged in a severe mudslinging campaign on the opposition to cover their own sins, he said. (Read More)

Wijekoon served as District Minister for Jaffna between 1979 and 1989 with considerable acceptance.

He said yesterday that the public would be officially notified of his candidature next Wednesday. Indicating that while he did not expect to be a winner, he said there was an important message he wished to project.

``His platform will be a new system of government giving the true meaning of Sovereignty which, in reality, is with the People. He is convinced that the party system that has been in existence for over 60 years based on the "Westminster model" and later modified to the French system with unlimited power bestowed on the Executive President has failed, and has caused divisions and disharmony in the country,’’ Swarajya said in a news release. (Read More)

One of Sri Lanka’s hidden treasures has always been its currency.  Not because the rapidly falling rupee has any real value as an investment, but because Sri Lanka’s various bills – the luminous 10 rupee note, the Sigiriya emblazoned  hundred with their intricate motifs represent some of the most attractive legal tender in the world.

Visitors to the island would frequently exclaim on the surprising beauty of the island’s notes and coins. For Sri Lankans the tasteful technicolor rupee once represented a reassuring constant in their uncertain lives. But no longer.

In its relentless quest to deface the entire island with posters and propaganda this regime has now gone a step too far. The Rajapaksa administration has in its unquenchable thirst for publicity  defaced the 1000 rupee note.   By emblazoning the  front and back of the note with pictures of the President beaming over the war victory the government  has made a cheap propaganda poster out of the  nation’s currency. (Read More)

The public must have an awareness of what it is that General Sarath Fonseka is offering. What kind of society, what kind of future, and what kind of government is he going to give us? We don’t believe for a moment that General Fonseka is going to become president, but let us examine, hypothetically, what the results will be if he is elected.

To start with, General Fonseka proposes to abolish the executive presidency and has given a time frame to achieve this purpose. This simply cannot be done. The constitution can be changed or amended only by having recourse to procedures spelt out in the constitution in itself. Any amendment, to be lawful, must be formulated and pursued within the framework of the constitution. Anything else will be a violation of the basic law of the land.  (Read More)

These are just a few instances where election rigging has been alleged. But few speak of the actual methods used by unscrupulous people to scramble to positions of power.
Spokesman for Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Keerthi Tennekoon said rigging did not just amount to ballot stuffing. In fact, he said there were a variety of ways to rig an election. One common grassroots method of rigging is done by Grama Niladharis and other government servants who “pump” certain people, such as Samurdhi beneficiaries, to vote a certain way. In addition when it came to the voter registration stage, it is possible for Grama Niladharis to delete certain voters’ names and add others instead. The voters would only realise this when their polling cards failed to arrive.

Tennekone revealed that at least 133,000 polling cards were issued to 53,000 people in the Colombo District alone during the last Western Provincial Council election.
In addition, voters capitalized on the sluggish system, using polling cards issued to people who were overseas or who had died recently. However with the rule that ID cards must be produced to vote, this practice has become less common, Tennekone said.