It is more than one year since the war ended but the government from the end of June 2010 has introduced new restrictions on movement to the Wanni by staff of UN agencies, NGOs and INGOs.

Why? While there is no official explanation — as is often the case now — it is speculated the government is worried that negative reports about the ground situation in the Wanni would reach the international community via these “agents”. It was pointed out that similar fears had once led to restrictions on entry to IDP camps. (Read more)

It said the government and the United National Party (UNP) had arrived at a consensus on several major issues.

Senior Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva told a news conference that electoral and constitutional reforms would be introduced soon and several committees representing the opposition have been appointed to work out the details.He said the discussions between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and the second round of talks that followed between the two groups were fruitful. (Read More)

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) APRC representative Nizam Kariappar and Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) representative R. Yogarajan have prepared the proposals based on the minutes of the APRC deliberations.

Mr. Yogarajan who is now a UNP national list MP will table this document in parliament on Tuesday. (Read More)

While assuring that the main opposition UNP’s discussions with the government would not push the proposed party reforms to the back seat UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera yesterday said the ongoing talks should focus on implementing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Jayasekera told a news conference that the party would go ahead with the reforms as it was the desire of the membership at grassroots level."The aspirations of the membership at grassroots level should be the prime focus as the party exists because of them," he said while stressing that the aspirations of the voters should also be taken into consideration. (Read More)

The UNP will never support Constitutional amendments aimed at the perpetuation of the family rule, its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, he said that he did not have a negative attitude towards such talks between the two parties. "Normally, there is hate politics between the parties. Yet, I would like to look at this matter from a positive point of view. I believe any outcome of such talks should be in the greater interest of the people. I welcome any step that leads to consensus politics," the UNP MP said. Asked about the political risk involved in such talks with the government, he said in a lighter vein that every political move involves risks some way or other. (Read More)

An influential section of the UNP fighting to oust Wickremesinghe believes the beleaguered Opposition Leader is seeking a lifeline from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government amid a bid to remove him. Political sources said that this was not the first time that President Rajapaksa had stepped-in to help Wickremesinghe’s hand during an internal crisis.

The main opposition UNP yesterday said its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe would soon begin discussions with all parties representing Parliament on changing the Constitution and replacing the Executive Presidency with a Prime Minister responsible to the legislature.UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a news conference that the objective of these talks would be to build up a common stand on Constitutional Amendments.

However Mr. Attanayake said President Mahinda Rajapaksa would also have talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) separately.

He said the current focus on the talks with the government is on the proposed amendment of the local government electoral system. UNP General Secretary said several ideas have propped up regarding this, while a mixed system was more likely. However no final decision had been made on the issue. Mr. Attanayake said the stand of the minority parties which claim their right to represent the people would diminish if the current proportional representation system is replaced with the ward system and with likely moves to introduce a mixed system. (Read More)

The government and the main opposition UNP yesterday agreed to introduce a new electoral system for local government elections before the end of this year. The system will be a mixture of the First-Past-the-Post System and the Proportional Representation System. 

Govt, UNP

Bipartisan talks on this were held yesterday at the residence of Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardane.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa outlined the proposals of the draft Bill at the meeting. According to the proposed system, the number of members elected to the local government administration will be doubled. (Read More)

The government and the United National Party yesterday agreed to discuss a series of electoral and constitutional changes including the creation of an Executive Prime Ministership to replace the Executive Presidency.

Asked if he believed Rajapaksa was serious about replacing the Executive Presidency with an Executive Prime Ministership, Wickremesinghe said that they had agreed in principle to discuss electoral and constitutional changes. But how far the talks would progress was left to be seen, he said. (Read Moe)