Presidential Election 2019

Image: Government supporters hold cutouts of portraits of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse during a march outside the U.N. office in Colombo on March 15, 2012. The demonstrators denounced a US-led move to censure Sri lanka at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva over its alleged war crimes […]

Cartoon by @tmdsbekanayaka “Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance” – Oscar Wilde. Elections are here, time for pacts, pledges and promises – the time-tested Sri Lankan way of savouring democracy. The sooner you get them negotiated and sealed the better. Formation of alliances before a Presidential Election is normal in Sri Lanka. […]

Image courtesy of Tamil Guardian. Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna  and its presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa have rejected the demands submitted by five major Tamil parties to prsidential candidates, reports pro Rajapaksa web site lankaeyewitness,  Calling the demands as an Eelamist proposal,  It further says that Gotabaya Rajapaksa will only adhere to 13th amendment. Sajith Premadasa, […]

Basic Info: Eight Presidential Election of Sri Lanka will be held on 16th November 2019. Thirty-Five candidates have handed over their nominations. The Ballot paper will be 66 cm long while 15,992,096 voters are eligible to vote. More than 1M Sri Lankan migrant workers and around 20,000 suspects in remand prisons are not eligible to […]

Cartoon by @Nikshazz . Sri Lanka’s floating voters, struggling to find their feet in the unpromising pandemonium of November’s Presidential elections, can only flinch from ‘Pohottuwa’ Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s promise at his inaugural campaign rally following nominations in Anuradhapura on Wednesday, that he would free all ‘war heroes’ held in custody on ‘bogus charges’ the day after he […]

Wimal Fernando. The two major parties, namely the SLPP and the UNF have announced Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa respectively as their presidential candidates. The third force JVP has announced Anura Kumara Dissanayake as their candidate. In addition there are several other candidates who either represent various other political parties or come as Independent candidates […]

Basil Rajapaksa told the country that their presidential candidate for the upcoming presidential election “will change himself”. Basil Rajapaksa also told us that “Gotabaya will be a terminator”- an apt description, in view of the connotations of danger attached to the word “terminator”. M.P. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, an unwavering Mahinda Rajapaksa loyalist, accepted that white van […]

Image: Lal Wijenayake, secretary general of the ULF  has been a prominant speaker at Jathika Jana Balawegaya public meetings  for some time now. In an email Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Member of Parliament and National Organizer, United Left Front has explained the position of  United Left Front regarding the up coming presidential election. The text of […]

Police have reported progress in their investigations into allegations Gotabaya Rajapaksa had failed to resume Sri Lankan citizenship he renounced in 2003 and raised serious doubts about his ability to stand at November’s presidential polls. The Criminal Investigations Department in a “B” report informed Colombo Chief magistrate Lanka Jayaratne of the outcome of a near […]

MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake was announced as the Presidential Candidate of the political coalition, National People’s Power- NPP (ජාතික ජන බලවේගය) on 18th August 2019. As the presidential candidate for the coalition, his speech included a general vision for the future of the country that took a liberal position in terms of state policy, governance […]

“Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office.” Carl Sagan (The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark) One point four million extra votes – that is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa needs to achieve his burning desire to become the next president of Sri Lanka. […]

Image: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ( Al Jazeera) (REUTERS) In a split decision, a panel of five Supreme Court judges rejected a petition by Rajapaksa, who had asked that a lower court case in which he is accused of embezzling state funds be thrown out, his spokesman said. If Rajapaksa, 70, is found guilty in a trial, […]

In a few months’ time this country will once again make decisions on the political leadership that will guide the destinies of the nation. This is a pivotal point in regard to the direction and manner in which our country will develop in the near future. 1. CONTEXT We must recognise the reality that we […]

The JVP deserves a chance, because it promises a credible third alternative to the hackneyed ethno-nationalist and neoliberal paradigm of the UNP-SLFP-SLPP cohort – Pic by Lasantha Kumara. The forthcoming Presidential Election is in many ways going to be an acid test for the two ethnic minorities, Tamils and Muslims, whose recent living experience had […]

I wonder how many people remember ‘Always Breakdown.’ It was probably the first political satire TV series in Sri Lanka, long before ‘Kathura,’ ‘Ethuma,’ and ‘And Company.’ The political figures were all puppets: no one was spared, though the series, broadcast on TNL, singled out Chandrika Kumaratunga. Whatever the politics, it was an overnight sensation. […]

Cognisant of the political deadlock within the country, and as a means of ending it, President Maithripala Sirisena has referred to the need to abolish the 19th Amendment to the constitution. This as the landmark legislation that reduced the powers of the presidency and increased the autonomy of state institutions. Both of these measures have […]

Image: Prof. S.R.H. Hoole speaking wearing a Sufi hat in solidarity with Sufi Muslims. GA and District Secretary Vedanayahan, Prabhus assembled here, including women, friends: When I accepted appointment as a Member of the Commission, it was on a happy day. We had come out of a hellish, brutish period when many men and women had been […]

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday that he had not decided on seeking another term in an election that is due by year-end. “I am not in a hurry to decide whether to stand,” Sirisena told a news conference in New Delhi, a day after attending Indian Prime Minister […]

Image: A protester during the Oct 2018 constitutional coup. In democracies, elections usually are significant political turning points. In democratic theory, an election marks two key opportunities to the people as well as the rulers. For the people, it marks the periodic occasion to elect their rulers and grant them authority to rule over them for […]

Current leaders of an apparently professional group of which we are members are trying to organize a reunion in honour of a visiting member of the alumni from the UK. That is like an official of the UN Human Rights Council visiting Sri Lanka. Given that I did not hear anything of importance about this […]

(2018-09-04) Sri Lankan voter, though highly literate, lacked the ability to apprehend the true nature of politics. If so happens, it could be worse than the present animosity, enmity and bitterness among the heads . “Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.” —Bertrand Russell. Quite a few politicians from both sides of […]