PLOTE will contest the forthcoming General Elections separately in the Northern Province without going for an electoral alliance with the ruling UPFA, the party leader said.People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eealam better known as PLOTE, supported President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Election.

Party leader Dharmalingam Siddharthan  told Daily Mirror yesterday that he might form an alliance with the likeminded Tamil parties based in the Province to contest the poll.“We continue to support the government. However, we will contest separately,” he said.PLOTE had been a political party that stood against the LTTE since 1980s. At the election to the Vavuniya Urban Council in August last year, the party fell short of only 140 votes to the TNA which won the council.

At the last parliamentary elections in April, 2004, the JHU went it alone and subsequently joined President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government.

Sources said that there was fierce competition to secure nominations to contest 16 electoral districts outside the Northern and Eastern provinces. (Read More)

The plot thickens, with 208 police officers expected to be transferred out from their present stations before the general election, Police sources said.

These officers, it is reliably understood, are expected to be severely reprimanded for not carrying out ‘instructions’during the recently concluded presidential election.
Police headquarters has already prepared a list which includes names of 98 senior DIGs, DIGs, SSPs, SPs, ASPs and 110 OICs, sources revealed.

It is understood that a probe is being made into the possibility of sending a few of them on compulsory leave. If that’s not possible these officers will be deprived of the three years service extension that is normally given to them when they reach 57 years of age.
A number of senior police officers including two senior DIGs, and five DIGs will be appointed as officers without portfolio at Police Headquarters, Police Field Force Headquarters, and at the Police Training College. (Read More)

Not heeding the JVP’s open call for UN intervention, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has ignored the opposition’s allegation that the results of the presidential election were rigged.

Associate spokesman Farhan Haq said that Ban Ki-moon had not changed his position with regard to the presidential election results. “He is relieved” Haq told the media.
It is learned that the UN Secretary General ignored allegations that the election results had been tampered with.

After the elections, Ban Ki-moon told the media, he was relieved that the election appears to have been relatively peaceful, despite some incidents.

During that media briefing, a journalist pointed out that opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka was challenging the election results but Ban Ki-moon ignored the question and did not respond.

The increasing number of assaults, abductions and arrests of journalists has raised concerns about the freedom of expression and the safety of Sri Lankan journalists among local and foreign media groups and media rights groups.

According to sources from state media institutions some personnel were assaulted a few days after the Presidential election on January 26. Hema Ajith, secretary of the pro-UNP union Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was interdicted and several members of the Production Directors Union were sent on compulsory leave while some directors too were interdicted.

The president, vice president and secretary and some members of the Rupavahini Television Programme Producers Union were also interdicted, according to state media sources. (Read More)

The voting pattern that indicated an ethnic polarization in the recently concluded Presidential election was not a good sign, but a serious issue, SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem said in Parliament yesterday.

Speaking during the Emergency debate in the House yesterday, Mr Hakeem said people in 32 electorates where there was a predominant minority population had voted for the opposition candidate while people in the electorates where there is a predominant majority community have voted for the ruling party candidate “government should make a serious note of this and find out as to why the minorities have voted against them” he said.

Mr. Hakeem charged that this result is a planed and manipulated one. He said this out come was a result of the campaign that was carried out with the allegation that common candidate General Sarath Fonseka and TNA leader R. Sampanthan. “This campaign roused communalism,” he said. (Read More)

The main opposition, the UNP yesterday called for President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son Yoshitha Rajapaksa to hand over his resignation if the government has decided on compulsory retirement for 14 Army officers based on their political involvements.

“Yoshitha Rajapaksa must be the first to retire as there is video and photograph evidence to show that he actively took part at political rallies unlike the 14 Army officers who are forced to retire,” UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara said yesterday  at a press conference held at the party office.

He charged that there could not be one rule for the Rajapaksa’s and another for the public. According to Jayasekara, retired military officers who  helped General Sarath Fonseka during his campaign are being hunted down and arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). “The CID has arrested 35 retired Army officers who helped General Fonseka during the campaign and are keeping all of them under special powers granted to the Defence Secretary that allows their arrest for 30 days without reason,” Jayasekara said. (Read More)

The government has decided to provide postal voting facilities to all health employees numbering 150,000 on the grounds that it is an essential service.

The cabinet has granted approval to this effect on a request made by Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on Wednesday, Cabinet Spokesman Information and Media Minister Anura Priyadhashana Yapa said.

Only several hundred health employees among a cadre of 150,000 get the opportunity to cast their votes by mail when they attend to election duty. (Read More)

The JVP and the UNP said they were voting against the extension of the state of emergency in parliament as the government is using it to suppress the opposition and the media.

"We supported the emergency vote to defeat terrorism and for eight months after that. But now we are going to oppose it because the government is using it against the people of this country," JVP MP Vijitha Herath said .

He said one of his partymen was killed at Ambalangoda by thugs, backed by the government. When the rest of the nation was celebrating the 62nd Independence Day, the JVP had to conduct the funeral of its slain member.

He said the government had failed to arrest those responsible for the killing. (Read More)

Local Election Monitors yesterday called upon Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake to provide more information on last weeks Presidential election counting centres and polling cards which may have caused a high rate of post-election violence in the country.

Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Director, Keerthi Tennakoon said yesterday that there have been 160 confirmed cases of violence since the election which includes, two deaths that occurred in Nawalapitiya and Ambalangoda, burning of houses and boutiques, the use of firearms, threats and other violent incidents. “Every violent incident that could happen has taken place since the election,” he said.

He said many of the people who have been subject to violence have not taken any action because they don’t think it would make a difference.

 “They don’t want to make statements to the Police because they feel helpless,” he said. He said the highest number of violent incidents have taken place in Kurunegala, Hambantota and Polonnaruwa.

He said that CaFFE has persistently requested the Elections Commissioner to release a copy of the counting carbonized copies of the election counting centres but that he had not responded to this request.

 “If we are provided with these copies we will be able to sought out any confusion that there may be with the people. The Elections Commissioner however has still not responded in any way to this request,” he said. (Read More)