Day: 21 December 2014

International Observers (IO) visiting the country to monitor the presidential election will require a ‘special clearance’ along with a recommendation from the Elections Commissioner, to visit the Northern Province for monitoring purposes, Military spokesman Brig. Ruwan Wanigasuriya said yesterday. “We have not lifted the restrictions on travel to the North. Foreign nationals will not be allowed to visit the North under ‘blanket approval’ without obtaining necessary clearance from the Defence ministry,” he said. He said there has been no official request to date, from the Elections Commissioner to the Defence…

The NGO One Text has conducted a survey on the upcoming presidential election. According to the survey, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is said to be leading with 57.62% of the vote while common candidate of the opposition Maithripala Sirisena is said to be trailing with 40% of the votes. Members of One Text include people from different political parties. It is headed by Mangala Munasinghe. more

Police attack on a group of civilians lead by Ampitiya Sumana Ratana Thero , in B’loa who were proceeding to hand over a petition to the President. A group of civilians including Buddhist priests led by Rev Ampitiye SumanaratnaThero yesterday alleged they were attacked by the police at around 6.30 p.m. on Friday in front of the Batticaloa Police Station. “The Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) received a complaint from Rev Ampitiye Sumanaratna Thero alleging that a group of civilians protesting that their voting rights should be ensured were…

In yet another devious act of state resource exploitation parents, teachers and students have been summoned to schools by the Education Ministry to participate in various abruptly organised ‘openings’ despite the schools remaining closed for December holidays, to promote President Rajapaksa‘s election campaign. Teacher unions have expressed their concern over these meetings and ‘openings’ that have been organised out-of-the-blue soon, pointing out they are a clear violation of election law flouting which the authorities have failed to prevent. “Since the end of the 2014 O/L examination on December 17 until…

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2014, 23:35 GMT] Colombo-based parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A. Sumanthiran, who visited Batticaloa on Thursday challenged the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to release the purported ‘secret agreement’, signed between the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena and the TNA. Responding, the grassroots activists from Aalaiyadi-vempu who met Mr Sumanthiran told TamilNet Friday that the TNA had failed to come out with a people-centric political move challenging the real perpetrators of the plight faced by Tamils and instead comes out with empty challenges to shield its…

Mass Murder Committed By Karuna The Sunday Leader of  9th January 2014 published an article on the first page under the caption IPKF Head Slams Karuna. The former IPKF Intelligence Corp. head Col. R.Hariharan  had made serious allegations against Deputy Minister Karuna, alias Col karuna. The Col alleges that Karen and his Deputy Pillian, former Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council were responsible for the Murder of about 300 Muslims, 600 people including hundreds of Policemen. With regard to the killing of policemen I may elaborate more on this…

Bathiuddin, Sri Ranga in fisticuffs at Temple Trees; Hakeem faces dilemma, but SLMC’s stance matters little to Muslims; Rajapaksa manifesto tomorrow Sirisena manifesto attempts to please all major partners in constitutional changes, but questions over how he will do it within 100 days At the end of a hectic schedule addressing election rallies in the South, President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to ‘Temple Trees’ last Monday evening. There he sat down to a discussion with Deputy Minister Muthu Sivalingam and Central Provincial Councillor Senthil Thondaman. The Ceylon Workers Congress duo was…