Minister of Education and the General Secretary of UPFA Susil Premajayantha said yesterday allowing election monitors at the counting centres  at the general elections is a good move.

Mr. Premajayantha made this point responding to a question asked at a forum organised by  Caritas Sri Lanka SEDEC on ensuring that the upcoming general elections  is a free and fair one. He said Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) had requested that their officers are allowed to monitor the counting centres and it is a good move to allow them to do so.

Stating that five members of each political party are allowed at each counting centre, the Minister said it is essential to ensure the counting of votes of an election is fair. (Read More)

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said yesterday its Moneragala District leader Ranjith Maddumabandara would be punished for his alleged involvement in omitting the name of Tissa Kuttiarachchi from the UNP nomination list.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a public meeting the party had taken steps to punish those who worked against the interests of the party irrespective of their position.

“We will not allow any one to reduce the party’s vote base,” he said and assured that justice would be done to Mr. Kuttiarachchi whose name was omitted from the UNP’s Moneragalla district nomination list.

Mr. Attanayake said the party would discuss the matter at the working committee meeting on Tuesday and an inquiry would also be held. (Read More)

A fundamental rights violation petition was filed against the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) for the alleged abuses of State resources and partisan use of State media resulting in the violation of the people’s sovereignty in the recently held Presidential election.

Priyanthi Subhashinie Perera, Helen Joanna Beryl Gray and Deborah Marianne Philip in their petition cited the Rupavahini Corporation, its Chairman Prof. Ariyaratne Athugala, its Chief Executive Officer Karunaratne Paranavithana, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake and the Attorney General as respondents.

The petition stated that the 2nd respondent Karunaratne Paranavithana and the 4th respondent Hudson Samarasinghe were SLFP organizers for Ratnapura district and Colombo West respectively. (Read More)

The briefing was held to announce that nine district leaders of the SLFP (M) and 31 others had met President Rajapaksa last Thursday (Feb. 25) and offered to return to the "Maha Gedara" once again.

The District Leaders from Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha, Badulla, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kalutara, Kegalle and Kurunegala were among them and numerous others will follow very soon. (Read More)

The Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya through the government counsel informed this decision when a Fundamental Rights petition filed by Hakeem was heard today.

The IGP further informed the Court that the police have decided to restore security to former parliamentarians who are either party leaders or general secretaries.

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Attorney General to explore the possibility of granting some security to the former parliamentarians when they heard a petition filed by 17 members of the dissolved parliament against the withdrawal of their security.

The State counsel informed the Court that the legislators are not entitled for the privileges of security after the legislature was dissolved.

Mr. Madduma Bandara told the media at his Moneragala residence that the nomination list submitted to the District Secretariat was the same that was signed and given by party headquarters Sirikotha. “This is a case of a non-entity trying to destroy the party by spreading baseless allegations, and if the CID wishes to hold an investigation we would give our full support,” he said.

It was alleged earlier that the UNP nomination list for the Moneragala district had been tampered with and the name of Janaka Tissakuttiarachchi deleted and another name entered in its place after the nomination list was approved by the party.  (Read More)

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)

Mr. Vinayagamurthi, had given his letter of resignation after he had made the decision to contest with the ITAK, which is being used by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to contest in the upcoming elections and after the working committee of the ACTC met on Sunday, he was removed altogether from the party.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, the General Secretary of the ACTC, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said that they had decided to remove him from the party list in spite of the fact that he had given in his letter of resignation from the post of president after he had decided to contest with the ITAK.

The National Freedom Front (NFF) has accused a section of the SLFP of targeting its Nuwara Eliya District candidate Nimal Piyatissa and his supporters.

NFF sources told The Island that a gang of SLFP supporters had stormed Piyatissa’s main campaign office at Walapane last Friday (Feb 26), the final day to hand over nominations. Sources said the gang had warned Piyatissa that he should be ready to face the consequences unless he stopped political activity in the electorate.

Sources said that SLFP supporters had been upset by the NFF organising a vehicle parade on its own in the area.

The attack came a day before UPFA candidates contesting the April 8 General Election, at a ceremony held at Jayasirimahabodiya, pledged not to engage in violence. Two weeks ago, SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena said that those who caused trouble would be denied ministerial portfolios. (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)