United National Party (UNP) front-liner Ravi Karunanayake said yesterday the party needed practical reforms but what was happening now was an exercise in confusion with various members trying to meddle in party affairs by trying to dictate terms as to how the party should be reformed.

“The process of revamping the party needs to be carried out in a methodical manner, and I’m focused on helping the UNP to become the next government,” he told a news conference and added that party reforms should benefit the party as a whole and not individuals seeking leadership posts.

Mr. Karunanayake asked the government to stop tinkering with the country’s constitution to suit its own agenda or for its benefit.

He said as in the past it would be the people who were bound to suffer, but the government must instead keep the promises it made during the presidential and general elections. (Read More)

The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) will boycott today’s Victory Day Celebrations as a mark of protest against its leader’s not being invited for the event.

DNA parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Daily Mirror yesterday that the DNA’s leader Gen. Sarath Fonseka had made the biggest contribution to achieve this military victory over the LTTE.

“Gen. Fonseka was the key person. Now he is being held behind bars. The government is holding these celebrations at such a time. We cannot participate in the event because of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said that he would participate in the   event representing his leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“Our leader informed me that he would not attend the main event. So I will attend,” he said. (Read More)

“Unless we appointed a true UNPer to the leadership level the Opposition parties would try to destroy the party by sending their representatives in the guise of UNPers,” he said.

He further warned that if the party is going to adopt a secret ballot to appoint front-liners, there is a possibility of power being seized only by a certain group. Wealth and power will be the deciding factors in the future UNP, he said. (read more)

The Constitutional Council that had to be appointed under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is to be done away with under the proposed amendments to the Constitution that are to be introduced soon,government sources said. With the proposed amendments to the Constitution, the nomination of the members of the Independent Commissions would be made by the President, rather than the Constitutional Council.

In keeping with the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, the first Constitutional Council was appointed in 2002 and, with the expiry of its three year term, a fresh Constitutional Council was not appointed, as there was no agreement among the minor parties about the nominees. As the commissions were inactive, some nominations that were to be made by these commissions were made by the President. (read more)

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) yesterday issuing a statement said that registering of voters in the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts had not yet reached the grassroots levels.

The organization further added that forms were being handed over only to those who were visiting the Grama Niladhari (village officers) offices and that the officers were not going to each house and handing over the forms. “This has resulted in one house in the neighborhood having forms while another does not,” the statement said.

The statement said that in comparison to other districts in the country the registration of voters in the North had not reached grassroots levels.

CaFFE also asked that the government to do its best to bring up to standard the registration of voters in the Northern Province.

The JVP yesterday vowed to prevent a two-third majority in Parliament for the government to bring about constitutional changes in an ad hoc manner at this time.  The party said that it would be done with the help of other parties in the opposition.

Parliamentary group leader of the JVP-led Democratic National Alliance Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a news conference yesterday that the opposition would try to muster the support of certain sections of the government for this purpose.

Mr. Dissanayake said that the government was making a hurried attempt to amend the Constitution so that President Mahinda Rajapaksa could contest the executive presidency for the third time too.

“We have always stood against the executive presidency. Even the President agreed in 2005 to abolish it. In 1994, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga gave us a written to assurance to scrap it. The UNP which introduced this system is also against it now,” he said. (Read More)

The police commission is set to be abolished and brought under the purview of the Public Service Commission under the proposed constitutional changes.

The police commission fell defunct due to the non appointment of the constitutional council by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. All police administration activities hitherto before the setting up of the now defunct police commission had been carried out by the PSC.
Government sources further noted that the constitutional council, defunct due to lack of understanding among political parties on the choice of members, will also be activated after bringing in new amendments -- as it is envisaged that the 17th amendment had some defects as it was passed in a hurry.

However, according to government inspired leaks, the proposed constitutional changes envisage to abolish the constitutional council and grant the president with powers to directly appoint the members of the (existing) four independent commissions: Judiciary, Police, Public Service and Human Rights. The president would appoint members in consultation with the prime minister, speaker and the opposition leader. However, none of the three could overrule a unilateral presidential decision.  (Read More)

Tensions in the UNP are at an all time high, with the election petition filed by UNP candidate Krishantha Pushpakumara alleging that the preferential votes in the Galle District must be re-counted. He filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking for leave to proceed for a re-count.
The respondents are the secretary of UNP, Galle candidate Gayantha Karunathilaka, and Manusha Nanayakkara.

A candidate who contested from the UNP during the last general elections told Lakbimanews that the defeated candidate Vajira Abeywardana had petitioned the SC.

He further said that it was suspicious that an election petition had been filed by Krishantha Pushpakumara, who earlier accepted his election defeat.

“When the preferential votes were counted, Krishantha Pushpakumara had a scrap of paper which mentioned the number of votes obtained by candidates. According to that list Manusha had topped the list, Gayantha was second while Vajira was third. As they did not trust Vajira, Krishantha told Manusha to keep an eye on the votes,” he said.

He says that it is also surprising that Krishantha was calling for a re-count.
It has now been revealed that Vajira Abeywardana, who accepted his defeat at the polls, was now saying that the election was rigged and was seeking affidavits from representatives of polling stations saying that the votes had been rigged. (Read More)