Kandy – Kandy District UNP Parliamentary election candidate and Nawalapitiya electorate chief organiser Sarath Gamini Hettiarachchi has accused former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka of breach of trust.
Addressing a recent media conference, Hettiarachchi said the bulk of the votes Fonseka polled in the January 26 Presidential election came from UNPers but he had now severed links with the party.
Hettiarachchi, the incumbent Mayor of Gampola, said Fonseka would have collected around 300,000 votes, and the overwhelming part of those votes were from the UNP.
"We feel sorry for Sarath Fonseka. We are aware that the JVP played a trick in this context," he said.
He also criticised the ongoing election campaign in Nawalapitiya. (Read More)
The Election Commissioner Dayananda Dishanayake through Divisional Secretaries has informed all the political parties to remove all the propaganda material in accordance with the election laws.
All cutouts, banners, posters and other election displays are to be removed by today (March 01), the Election Commissioner has ordered.
The Election Department and the police have taken steps to remove all the displays, the Commissioner has informed the parties.
Earlier the DIG for elections Gamini Navaratne suggested the political parties to print leaflets and distribute to voters instead of putting up displays that had to be taken down by the police spending tax payer's money. (Read More)
The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by retired General Sarath Fonseka yesterday stressed the need for all opposition political parties including the United National Party (UNP) to work together to get its leader released and to re-establish democracy in Sri Lanka.
“With this objective in mind the Alliance would liaise with other opposition parties though they were contesting the General Election separately,” DNA General Secretary Vijitha Herath told journalists at a ceremony where General Fonseka’s wife Anoma handed in the General’s nomination papers to the DNA at its Rajakiya Mawatha office yesterday.
“It is the duty of all opposition political parties to come together for re-establishing democracy in Sri Lanka an to free General Fonseka who gave some breathing space to the people of this country by crushing ter rorism,” Mr. Hearth said. (Read More)
The UPFA had handed over nominations for all 22 electoral districts by yesterday, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said.
Nominations for the Parliamentary Elections set for April 8 will be concluded at 1.00 pm today.
A total of 140,88,500 voters are set to elect 196 Members of Parliament at election and 29 are to be elected from the national list for the seventh parliament of Sri Lanka. February 27 with religious observances in Anuradhapura attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In the meantime, the UNP- led alliance handed over nominations for Galle, Puttalam and Matara districts yesterday.
Nominations for other districts would be handed over today, the party said. According to informed sources the tussle had become serious last morning with UNP’s Digamadulla Organizer Daya Gamage suggesting to field candidates separately from both parties. (Read More)
The SLFP-led UPFA would secure seven out of ten seats in the Kalutara electoral District at the forthcoming parliamentary polls, UPFA district leader Kumara Welgama said. He expressed confidence that the ruling coalition would comfortably win all eight electorates (Agalawatte, Bandaragama, Beruwela, Bulathsinhala, Horana, Kalutara, Matugama and Panadura) at the April 8 election. Speaking to The Island shortly before he handed over the Kalutara District nominations, the Industrial Development Minister said that the UNP was in a pathetic situation.
The Supreme Court yesterday refused to suspend the arrest and detention of defeated presidential candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka or to order his release.
However the SC Bench comprising Justices Shirani A. Bandaranayake, Jagath Balapatabendi and K. Sripavan granted interim relief for reasonable access to him by his immediate family members and identified lawyers in consultation with the relevant authorities.
The Court ruled that the names of the lawyers be submitted to the Attorney General.
The Attorney General said the Democratic National Alliance Secretary could meet him for the purpose of matters connected to the April general election. The next hearing was fixed for April 26.
The Attorney General told Court that the non summary inquiry under the Army Act was progressing and the course of action would be decided by the Army Commander after he received the inquiry report.
On February 12 the Supreme Court granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition challenging General Fonseka’s alleged arbitrary arrest and detention. (Read More)
The main opposition UNP yesterday criticized the JVP for not responding to its proposal to contest the general election under a common symbol in some districts while fielding candidates under the elephant symbol elsewhere.
Addressing a hurriedly summoned news conference, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP, as the single largest party in the opposition, sought views from the JVP with regard to this proposal aimed at binding the opposition parties together in the fight against the UPFA.
“We waited for a response until last Sunday. We did not hear anything from them. Nevertheless, we have still kept the option open. We have finalized nominations only to a certain extent. There is space for us to accommodate some others on board. If they are willing, they can respond within the next few days,” Mr. Attanayake said.
Asked why the UNP was not ready to compromise the elephant symbol for a common political formation for the whole country, the General Secretary vaguely said all members of his party’s Working Committee wanted to retain the elephant symbol. (Read More)
Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amerasinghe yesterday claimed that it was never in an alliance with the UNP and that every party that supported the candidacy of General Sarath Fonseka, did so individually.
“We have not formed an alliance with the UNP; we supported the General, the UNP supported the General and the other parties also supported the General,” Amerasinghe told Daily Mirror Hot Seat when asked if the JVP had joined forces with the UNP. Amerasinghe stated that the only agreement among the parties was that they would support the candidacy of the General. “The only agreement was that we will work in unity to make the General, President of this country; to hold a free and fair General Election and bring back good governance and give this country dignity,” he said. (Read More)
The JVP formed a new political front called the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) under the leadership of Gen. Sarath Fonseka to contest the upcoming general election, K.D. Lal Kantha said yesterday.
The new alliance formed under the Trophy symbol was expected to be backed by SLFP MP Arjuna Ranatunga and SLFP (Mahajana Wing) General Secretary Tiran Alles.
Vijtha Herath has been appointed as the General Secretary of the new alliance.Lal Kantha said the party would hand over nominations for the elections on February 25 and 26. He said that JVP took the decision because the UNP had declined to back down from its stand to contest the poll set for April 8, under its elephant symbol. The new alliance has been formed by renaming an existing party since a political party cannot be registered when there is an election s declared. (Read More)
JVP headquarters in Pelawatte is currently being searched by the Police, Spokesman from the Media Unite confirmed to CaFFE.
The team of policemen had arrived at the party headquarters and wanted to search the premises but had been told by party members that they would have to bring with them a court warrant to do so.
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