President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to discuss the Amendments to the Constitution with the leaders of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) before it is presented before Parliament next month.

According to sources the President is likely to discuss about the amendments with the

Alliance leaders within the next two weeks.

The President has appointed a special committee headed by Professor G.L. Pieris to draft the proposed amendments to the constitution and it is said that the committee is already at work.

The President summoned the Alliance leaders to Temple Trees and had briefed them on the amendments. After the draft is ready copies will be made available to the leaders of parties.

The amendment of the number of times the President could hold the presidency the appointment of a senate or an Upper House and avoiding the shortcoming of the 17th Amendment are the first steps to be presented to the parliament for its approval.

The UNP reforms committee would seek the views of various party-affiliated   organizations such as the National Youth Front and Lak Vanitha Movement next week on the proposals submitted by it to the Working Committee last Friday, party officials said. 

Committee Chairman MP Joseph Michael Perera told Daily Mirror yesterday that he, along with other members, would meet the representatives of these organizations on May 31, June 1, 2 and 3, and brief them on the proposed reforms.  Mr. Perera requested these organizations to forward their suggestions in writing to be considered by the Committee. (Read More)

Mohamed Ismail - commonly known as ‘Ismail Haji’ of Valaichcheni and Mohamed Furkan of Meeraodai from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) will hold the vacant provincial council position of the party in the Eastern Provincial Council taking turns, SLMC General Secretary Hassan Ali said.

They would hold this position in turns with Ismail Haji holding the councillor post for the first 15 months and Furkan for the next 15 .(Read More)

The Tamil National Alliance appealed to the government last night to take corrective measures after its 12-member parliamentary team was reportedly denied entry to the IDP camp in Vanni.

A statement signed by the 12 MPs called on the "people of Sri Lanka and the world at large, including the UN and its relevant organs, to take cognizance of this act of unbridled authoritarianism".

The statement added: "The TNA MPs undertook a trip to the Vanni to visit the several camps in which civilians were being kept, to visit the camps in which the young Tamil people were being detained and also visit the several areas in the Vanni where resettlement and rehabilitation are said to have commenced. (Read More)

Some sections of the UNP are hell bent on scuttling the long-awaited UNP reforms, questioning the legality and propriety of the UNP Reforms Committee, a prominent member of the UNP said.
He said that the UNP Reforms Committee does not have the mandate of either the Executive Committee or the Working Committee, to proceed to formulate any proposals to amend the UNP Constitution.

When asked as to how the Reforms Committee was established, a UNP heavyweight said that when a few young MPs were shouting themselves hoarse at an ordinary meeting which was called to discuss some other issues, to defuse the situation, the so-called Reforms Committee was appointed.

However, when contacted, UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara said that this report will be a decisive report and the rebel group will not permit anyone to prevent the implementation of the recommendations.  (Read More)

By Frederica Jansz

At the Working Committee meeting of the UNP on Friday, May 21, Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe responding to a page one lead story in The Sunday Leader of  May 9, titled “Show Us The Money” had said, that “the money” had been given to this newspaper during the last presidential election of December 2009 – January 2010.

Ranjan Ramanayake MP, had quizzed the Opposition Leader requesting him to respond to charges of malpractices involving the non accountability of millions of rupees handed over to him during successive elections – referring in particular to The Sunday Leader and its recent exposés on Wickremesinghe and the UNP.

At which point, Wickremesinghe had said, “I gave The Sunday Leader Rs. 11 million during the last presidential election campaign as well as some monies to General Sarath Fonseka for his campaign.”  (Read More)

Will battle between Sajith Premadasa and Ravi Karunanayake help Ranil Wickremesinghe avert the latest bid to move him out of leadership?

A committee appointed to explore ways and means of overhauling the UNP will support the call to elect the party leader through an election.

A well informed source told The Island yesterday that the committee would propose that the posts of the leader, deputy leader, assistant leader, national organizer and chairman should be contested. But it would be prerogative of the party leader to pick a general secretary and treasurer to ensure that he would have a team to work with, the source said.

The decision making working committee and the parliamentary group are expected to meet today (May 21) to discuss the proposals. Another source said that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, too, reluctantly had agreed that the post of the leader should be contested on the condition that the leader should have the power to pick the general secretary and treasurer. (read more)

"Now that peace has come at last, the international community is leaving the people on their own. They need every kind of aid in order to be able to start their lives anew in their old villages," said Joachim Schwarz, Welthungerhilfe’s regional director in Sri Lanka.

"The people are returning empty-handed to areas where everything has been destroyed. They have no shelter and no hoes with which they can cultivate the fields, and there is no water in the wells," says Schwarz.

More than 280,000 refugees lived in camps in areas around Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee following the end of the war.

Although about two thirds of them have since left the camps, only 110,000 have been able to return to their old villages. (Read More)