The Sri Lanka Local Government Forum Executive Committee said yesterday it was opposed the amendment of the Provincial Council electoral reforms that were presented to parliament on December 2, 2008.

The forum’s president Nimal Jayawardena, who is also the President of Sri Lanka Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman’s Association, said the forum, held a meeting on Monday at the Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council hall to discus this matter, and would shortly inform President Mahinda Rajapaksa why the group was opposed to the Amendment. (Read More)

A UNP committee set up to look into party reforms did not submit its report as expected yesterday and had asked for time till next Monday, a spokesman said.

United National Party (UNP) spokesman and Galle district parliamentarian Gayantha Karunatilleke told a news conference yesterday the report had been delayed as the committee headed by former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera wished to discuss the proposals further with party members. (Read More) 

UNP MP Sajith Premadasa yesterday said that the modernization process of the UNP should be an open, transparent and democratic process and not a process whereby a single voice or single opinion dominates the whole agenda.

During a live audio broadcast on Daily Mirror Online yesterday, MP Premadasa said “You have the deputy leader’s position, the national organizers’ position, various assistant secretaries and several other positions and responsibilities attached to the party constitution. So the modernization process should be an open, transparent and democratic process and not a process whereby a single voice or single opinion dominates the whole agenda which is why we are going by a process which includes all the pressure groups and organizations in the party.(Read More)

While the government is making a huge fuss about the need for electoral reform, elections department officials claim that successive recommendations they have made to reduce election malpractices and improve the system have been neglected by the parliamentary select committee on electoral reform.

“In 2006, the department of elections recommended the use of electronic voting which is also used in India. A lot of malpractices result with the ballot paper and the new system would have prevented that. We presented our report to the select committee headed by Dinesh Gunawardane and they also agreed to implement it. We contacted an Indian voting machine manufacturer, Bharat Electronics Limited which gave a demonstration to department officials, committee members and election monitors. The commit members agreed to present the bill in parliament to implement the system but for four years nothing has happened,” said advisor to the elections commissioner Bandula Kulathunga.
Certain laws need to be amended before implementing electronic voting since currently the law recognizes the ballot paper only.

Also another recommendation to create a master registry of voters was presented to the select committee by department officials last year. This proposal has also been allowed to languish without being presented to parliament.

“There are many problems with voter registries. A lot of people claim that their names have been removed from them. So we thought about doing a census of all the voters and making a master voter registry. Then we don’t need to do annual voter registrations. If someone wants to take their name out of the registry, e.g., if they are leaving the country, want to make an amendment, e.g. change of address or register as a new voter, they can do it via the Grama Niladaris or the Department of Elections officials. That bill was almost presented to parliament but the parliament was dissolved but hopefully the government will look into it again,” Kulathunga said.

The main opposition UNP led United National Front (UNF) alliance is facing further defections.
Among those tipped to pole-vault is Sri Ranga Jayaratnam, the former MTV personality who contested on the UPF ticket. Sri Ranga, who led a newly registered political party named Purawesi Peramuna (Citizens Front), fell out with the crisis hit UNP leadership over the non allocation of a national list seat to his party. Sri Ranga stayed in parliament when the opposition walked out from the House in protest against preventing DNA leader Gen (retired) Fonseka from attending parliament on Wednesday.

Another potential candidate to cross over to the government is the UNP MP for Kandy district Abdul Cader who surprisingly decided to vote with the UPFA in favour of the extension of the State of Emergency. However, when contacted by Lakbima news, he squashed swirling speculation that he had decided to ditch his party.

MP Cader said that he had only taken the decision to cast his vote in favour of the extension of the State of Emergency and that there was nothing more to it.
He insisted that merely voting with the UPFA cannot be construed as either siding with or joining the government, and as of now he has no intention of doing so and that he would remain with the UNP.

When the vote on the extension of the State of Emergency by a month took place, only three UNP MPs had remained in the legislature, one of whom was Abdul Cader.
Speculation was also rife, in the political circles that the UNP had decided to call for explanation from MP Cader over his decision to vote with the government.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told Parliament yesterday that missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda had used seven sim cards and had made many suspicious phone calls.

Speaking during the adjournment debate on Eknaigoda’s disappearance in the House yesterday the minister said that the missing journalist had contacted a person in Valachchenai as well. The minister assured that all these pieces of evidence now with the Homagama police who were investigating the disappearance of the senior journalist. “There is nothing wrong in the opposition talking on behalf of journalists, but they should not try to get political advantages out of it,” he said, stressing that such actions would not help journalists.

Explaining the reasons for this the minister said that there was evidence to suggest that a large number of persons who had gone ‘missing’ had actually gone abroad. Mr. Rambukwella explained that there was proof that they had applied for visas to leave the country although the opposition had made a huge fuss about these incidents. (Read More)

The government has decided to assign UPFA new entrants to Parliament who polled the highest number of preferential votes last month to spearhead development activities in their respective districts, The Island learns. They will be appointed heads of district development committees in recognition of the trust people have reposed in them, according to sources close to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Among these parliamentarians are Sanath Jayasuriya (Matara), Namal Rajapaksa (Hambantota), Lakshman Perera (Matale) and Sarath Weerasekera (Digamadulla).(Read More)