SLFP Senior Assistant Secretary and Vocational and Technical Training Minister Piyasena Gamage plans to hold 250 pocket meetings in the Hiniduma electorate in support of the UPFA Presidential candidate, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The decision came at a special meeting of the Hiniduma Central Committee held recently at Neluwa, Medagama.It has been planned to hold 65 rallies within the Neluwa Pradeshya Sabha, 70 in Niyangama PS limits, 75 in Nagoda and 40 in Tawalama.The rallies would start soon after the handing over of nominations on December 17.
Two JVP supporters, who were engaged in pasting posters in support of Presidential poll candidate General Sarath Fonseka, were assaulted at Mahiyangana in the early hours of yesterday, according to a party press release.
It said the assault was allegedly carried out by the Moneragala Pradeshya Sabha chairman and his loyalists.The JVP also claimed that police had arrested one of the assaulted victims after he was handed over to them. The other victim, who had gone to Police to lodge a complaint, had also been arrested, the party added.When inquired about the arrest, police said the JVP activists had been arrested on charges of instigating violence and they would be produced before court. No action has been taken against the Pradeshya Sabha chairman, the JVP said.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said yesterday it would be able to announce its stand on the presidential election within a week after the examination of their people’s opinion in this respect.
TNA MP for the Jaffna district Suresh Premachandran told the Daily Mirror yesterday that he was having meetings in his constituency these days to know for himself how the Tamil people were responding to the present change in the political climate of the country.
Asked for his analysis on the people’s mindset, he said that Tamil people had no faith in any of these candidates, whom them believe, would not deliver anything upon election to office. “We are yet to discuss the situation with our party seniors. In a week or so, we will be able to reach some conclusion on our stand,” he said.
TNA leader R. Sampanthan also told the Daily Mirror that his party was looking at various options. “Within the next few days, we will be able to tell you something about our stand,” he said.
Meanwhile, TNA MP Selvarajah Gajendran who was abroad for more than a year had now returned to the country to resume his political work. Mr. Gajendran was out of the country when the war was raging, and he was noted for his inflammatory remarks on the government and the military.
The Internal Administration Ministry was contemplating the issue of a temporary ID card valid for one year for those who do not have a national ID card, enabling them to cast votes in the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections, a Ministry spokesman said.
The temporary ID cards so far issued for voters were valid only for two weeks and only for a particular election.
“The Ministry expects to obtain cabinet approval shortly and one year temporary ID cards will be issued through the Divisional Secretaries via Grama Niladharis.
The Grama Niladhari would send the certified application with three photographs of the voter to the Divisional Secretary,” the spokesman said.“The government takes a lot of concern to issue temporary ID cards to thousands of voters incurring a considerable expense at every election. With the issue of a temporary ID card valid for one year, it would ease the problem a bit,” he added.
Special attention would be given to the issue of ID cards to IDPs as it had been revealed that about 40% of the IDPs were without any kind of official identification.
A large number of people in the North had not bothered to get a national ID during the conflict and they have not got the opportunity to do so. Now they were keen to use their free franchise after almost 3 decades and the government wants to help them, he stressed.
More than half the voters from the North will lose their right to exercise their franchise in the coming presidential elections claims the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE.) This will not only affect the outcome of the election but also will be a major blow to the reintegration of these people into the democratic process.
“The voter registry was prepared during 2008 June and July. But the real question is how many people from the war torn areas have registered during that time and even if they had are they still living in the same polling division? The population of the Province is estimated to be around one million and from what I know more than 50% of the people have not registered or have moved away from their registered polling division, or are living in IDP camps, in various other temporary shelters or are with their relatives,” he said. “According to our system a person should vote in the division that he is registered in,” he added. (Read More)
“I will without any doubt win the presidential election against president Rajapaksa’’ said General Sarath Fonseka speaking on Friday to lawyers of the National Lawyers Association at the Hotel Gladhari. Gen Fonseka also garlanded a photograph of late slain newspaper editor Lasantha Wickremetunge, as the Lawyers Association honoured members who died this year. Gen Fonseka also speaking, said in answer to a written question that when some people allege that he killed Lasantha Wickremetunge, they are insulting the army, and the forces —- because he did not go with weapons out on the streets anytime - so the implication is that the revered and respected army was used for killings, which is rank disrespect to the army. (Read More)
The Eastern Province’s largest Tamil political party, now with the UPFA Government, said yesterday it would not campaign for President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the upcoming Presidential Election. The decision was taken by the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers) headed by Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan on Friday night.
“Thirteen of our 15 politburo members who took part in the meeting supported this move,” TMVP General Secretary Edwinsilva Kailasaraja told the Sunday Times. The meeting took place at the party office at Lake Road in Batticaloa and the members discussed the issue for almost three hours to arrive at this decision, he said.
Mr. Kailasaraja said te TMVP was not in a position to go to the people in the East and ask them to vote for Mr. Rajapaksa.
During the 18 months in office, he said, Chief Minister Chandrakanthan had been prevented from carrying out any development work or giving jobs to people in the East. “Hence, we have nothing to tell our people,” he said. The decision not to support President Rajapaksa was taken though the UPFA controls the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), holding 20 of the 35 seats. That includes six members of the TMVP who contested the last EPC poll on the UPFA ticket.
Mr. Kailasaraja accused the Provincial Governor Mohan Wijewickrema of obstructing the work of the Chief Minister. He said on two occasions they had written to President Rajapaksa on the matter. Even letters written to the Governor were not getting a response.
Gov. Wijewickrema, however, denied the allegation. Officials at the Governor’s office said Rear Admiral (retd.) Wijewickrema, with the approval of President Rajapaksa, provided 200 jobs for minor employees.Last week, the TMVP attempted to veto the financial allocations budgeted for the Governor in a bid to force him to quit. However, two TMVP councillors opposed the move and helped approve the allocations by a majority vote.
The National Lawyers Association met in Colombo on Friday and called on the Elections Commissioner to implement the 17th Amendment and more particularly the Article relating to the use of State resources and the media at the forthcoming Presidential elections.
The Association at its AGM also called upon candidates to declare their assets and the assets of their immediate family members and to disclose all State resources used by them and their agents in their election campaign.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Gen. (retd.) Sarath Fonseka were among the guests on the occasion. The Association also condemned the Government for allowing journalists and politicians to be abducted, assaulted and even killed, and for allegedly conniving in the suppression of the investigations and creating a culture which encourages the extra-judicial killing of alleged criminals and even mental patients.
The declaration also said the Government has blatantly violated the Constitution, by failing to appoint the Constitutional Council, and failing to appoint the Elections Commission in addition to openly using State resources and State institutions at all times, and particularly at elections, in violation of the Constitution and the election laws.
“This Government has crippled the functions of the Bribery and Corruption Commission, by not providing the necessary funds and personnel, and has thereby propagated bribery and corruption at the highest level of the Government”, the declaration said.
The Association condemned the holding of thousands of persons in camps as refugees.
“Although there are around 2.6 million voters whose National Identity Card (NIC) numbers are not entered in the completed electoral registration forms, the actual numbers without NICs are less. It is only voters who do not have any form of valid identity card to produce at the polling booth who will need the temporary identity card,” Mr. Dharmadasa said.
However Keerthi Tennakoon of the election monitoring group CaFFE said that it is likely a large number of people would be disenfranchised due to the identity card issue. “The Government was aware of this problem for the past 18 months but did not do anything about it. Now at the last minute attempts are being made to issue temporary identity cards but it is not possible to practically do so in such a short period of time,” Mr.Tennakoon said. (Read More)
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) remains undecided on extending support to either of the two main presidential candidates.
TNA Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan told the Sunday Times, “We are monitoring the situation. We are yet to take a decision on the matter”. He said consultations with other political parties too were in progress.
However, the Sunday Times learns that some members of the TNA are pushing for a common Tamil candidate. These members have pointed out that supporting President Mahinda Rajapaksa or General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka will not be useful for the Tamils. They claim there is a possibility of some of the voters boycotting elections.
They also say that a Tamil candidate could secure the votes of the displaced persons and get the Tamil voters to come out and vote. However, PLOTE leader Dharmalingam Sidharthan told the Sunday Times his party had decided to support President Rajapaksa at the upcoming Presidential election.
He said the decision was taken as the party was satisfied with the manner in which the Government was handling the IDP issue and development activities.
Meanwhile, the SLFP will open a new party office in Jaffna next Friday. Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a vice president of the SLFP, will be in charge of the Jaffna district campaign. This will be in addition to Minister Douglas Devananda who is already working for the UPFA in the Jaffna district.
