Day: 28 December 2014

Sri Lanka’s largest Muslim political party on Sunday defected from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to support the opposition candidate in the January presidential election. The announcement by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress on Sunday will be a major blow to Rajapaksa’s campaign for a third term in office with more than 20 lawmakers and ministers defecting to the opposition. Ameer Faaiz, a leader of the party that represents minority Muslims in overwhelmingly Buddhist Sri Lanka, cited the Rajapaksa administration’s “intolerance toward religious minorities” and disagreement with his style of rule. He…

An all-party splitting poll The Presidential Election of 2015 will certainly go down as one of the most entertaining and unpredictable campaigns in the history of democracy in Sri Lanka. Quite frankly, no-one knows who will do what, next.If a key measure of the vibrancy of Sri Lanka’s democracy is the independence of members of various parties, then we can safely say that our country’s political system is very much alive and kicking. Never in the long history of Sri Lankan politics have so many politicians split from their parties…

Dr. A.C. Visvalingam On account of the unwarranted diffidence of Sri Lankans when it comes to asserting their constitutional rights, the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG) has found it necessary to assert repeatedly over the years through the media that the People are sovereign and that no one, however mighty, should be allowed to usurp their powers. Nevertheless, the reality is that, once an election is over, our citizens have got used to watching impotently whilst their elected representatives violate with impunity the trust placed in them to manage…

“President Rajapaksa’s chief opinion pollster – who is a good contact of the embassy on other issues – shared with us the first findings from their initial survey. These initial responses indicated that potential voters had little interest in the symbolic issues” US Embassy Colombo informed Washington. The Colombo Telegraph found the leaked cable from the Wikileak database. The cable classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” and signed by the US Ambassador to Colombo Patricia A. Butenis on December 26, 2009. The cable recounts details of a meeting US Ambassador to Colombo has had with…

By Camelia Nathaniel Transparency International has brought to the notice of the Elections Commissioner a programme to distribute religious attire (Sil Redhi) amounting to Rs. 1000 Million across the Island in a manner that supports the UPFA presidential candidate. S.Ranugge the Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka in his letter to the Elections commissioner urged him to take action to immediately halt this programme of distributing 800,000 packs of Sil Redhi using an exorbitant amount of state funds. “Each portion of attire is 5 Meters long. The order has…

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has decided to support Common Opposition Presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena as the majority of party members are in favour of the candidate, SLMC sources said. According to these sources the SLMC has held a series of meetings with its party members at regional level and several issues .discussed with regard to the safety, integrity and the dignity of Muslims regarding the forthcoming Presidential polls. The SLMC hierarchy held several rounds of meetings at its Head Office Darussalam in Colombo over the stance to be taken…