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Home » NewsAn honourable MP lays a wreath for those who died for us
While national attention was focused on the November 16 presidential election, a rain-marred rehearsal was held yesterday to mark today’s Poppy Day. On this day, we remember troops killed or injured in wars. Picture shows an MP – not a member of parliament, but a military police officer – carrying a wreath of poppies [...]
Main candidates full of hopes; tight security for Saturday’s presidential election
The two major contenders at next Saturday’s presidential elections have voiced confidence they would emerge victorious. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, contesting on the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna ticket, declared “I believe the voters will place their full confidence in me. I look forward to serving them as their President.” New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa said, [...]
Cyberwar hits campaign for presidential poll
Facebook political advertisements have caused serious concerns for the National Elections Commission. “It is a challenging task to stop well targeted paid political ads,” NEC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told the Sunday Times yesterday. “I don’t know how we can ensure all sorts of Facebook political campaigning activities are stopped after the ban on campaigning from [...]
Presidential pardon for Royal Park murder convict on death row
A presidential pardon has been granted to murder convict Sharmantha Jayamaha who was sentenced to death over the murder of a teenage girl at the Royal Park apartment complex in Rajagiriya in 2005. Prisons Commissioner General T.M.J.W. Tennakoon said yesterday they received a Presidential Secretariat document granting a pardon to the convict. In 2006, the [...]
President’s, ministers’ staff to be made permanent
Two separate cabinet papers have been submitted seeking approval to give permanency to the services of the staff attached to ministers, non cabinet ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers and the President’s personal staff. The cabinet papers were submitted by President Maithripala Sirisena and Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena. The President said that in [...]
UN decision on peacekeepers: NAM backs Lanka’s protest
Sri Lanka, with backing from the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), again issued a scathing criticism of the United Nations over what it called a matter of questionable procedure and unjust treatment by the Department of Peace Operations in unilaterally adjusting the country’s contribution to UN deployments abroad. The DPO sought to link its decision not [...]
JICA funds 2 more Doppler radars despite disastrous Rs 400m attempt earlier
The Meteorological (Met) Department has secured Japanese funding for two more Doppler radars, after its first Rs 400 million attempt to install one, with World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) collaboration, ended in a costly disaster. But the new Doppler radars, for which agreements were signed with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in June 2017, have [...]
BIA shut down by 28-minute power failure
A 28-minute power failure at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) paralysed operations yesterday. Airport and Aviation Services Ltd (AASL) Chairman Dhammika Ranatunga told the Sunday Times that an air bridge which connected to a Cochin bound SriLankan Airlines flight UL 165, with 168 passengers on board, could not be retracted until the power was restored. Mr [...]
SLPP politico remanded for alleged assault on woman supporter of Sajith
A Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Predeshiya Sabaha member and three others were remanded until tomorrow after they allegedly assaulted a 50-year-old female supporter of National Democratic Front Candidate Sajith Premadasa in Matale. The incident had taken place on Friday near Kotuwagedara in Matale when the PS member and his supporters were returning from an SLPP [...]
MTV challenges SLPP ‘Letter of Demand’ as strong-arm tactics
SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s lawyer has urged Sirasa TV to refrain from distorting a verdict delivered by the Central District of California in the United States over a case instituted by Ms. Ahimsa Wickrematunge over the assassination of her father, Lasantha Wickremathunge, the slain Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, but the TV channel has [...]
Sajith vows to build just and fair society
National Democratic Alliance Candidate Sajith Premadasa in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times has assured he would bring about social justice, including poverty alleviation to restore the dignity of millions of poverty-stricken people. For that and related purposes, he would his first priority would be putting the right people in the right places, then [...]
100 polls-related complaints a day; 400 Facebook messages identified as election violations
An average of 100 complaints of election law violations and violence is being received daily by the National elections Commission (NEC) statistics reveal. The NEC reported that since nominations were handed out on October 7 a total of 3319 incidents of violence and violations have been received as of Friday (November 8). This includes 3189 [...]
More than 300,000 temporary identity cards for voters
More than 300,000 temporary identity cards have been issued by the Department of Registration of Persons to enable them to vote at next Saturday’s presidential election, a senior official said. Commissioner General Viyani Gunatillake told the Sunday Times that the cards were issued as there had been a delay in processing the identity cards in [...]
4 new measuring instruments as air quality drops to breathtaking levels
Four new air quality measuring instruments will be installed in Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Jaffna during the coming days, the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) said. Air quality started deteriorating from November 5-8 in Colombo, said Climate Scientist cum Environmental Engineer Lareef Zubair. “The particulate matter levels went up twofold, to unhealthy levels, but has [...]
South sings for Gota, but Sajith no pushover
Southern Province GALLE DISTRICT In the Galle district, the two main candidates have addressed a string of meetings. In contrast to other districts, more party offices have been set up in the interior, besides the ones on the main roads. Enthusiasm is high among party supporters to attend meetings of the two main candidates. With [...]
Western Province has 25 per cent of total vote – crucial for main alliances
Western Province Colombo District : House to house campaigns, pocket meetings and the distribution of leaflets in support of candidates are in progress with just five more days for the presidential election. With 1.6 million votes in the district, the candidates consider it as one of the important areas to secure votes while final rallies [...]
Parties frantically count heads in tight contest
KANDY DISTRICT : Kandy tipped to stay UNP but other major prizes could go any way With more than 1.1 million votes up for grabs in the district, Kandy is one of the biggest prizes on offer at next Saturday’s presidential election. Kandy’s importance to the overall presidential race was underscored this week when all [...]
Rajiva proposes devolution at district level
Former MP and State Minister Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, who is running as an independent candidate under the ‘owl’ symbol at next Saturday’s presidential election, said he was contesting to draw attention to what had been promised in President Maithripala Sirisena’s election manifesto and to highlight the manner in which those promises could be implemented. In [...]
Promises galore and humour aplenty
Elections in Sri Lanka are always rich in quotable quotes and this presidential race was no different. The campaign brought out promises galore but there was also humour aplenty. Here is a selection picked from the trail. “The truth is that SLFPers will not vote for the Pohottuwa or the JVP. But they will not [...]
More hot air than light at the final presidential debate
Today, we bring you the second and final debate between presidential candidates, Sajith Premadasa (SP), Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR), Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and Mahesh Senanayake (MS) with Mahinda Deshapriya (MaKo) as the moderator. MaKo: Thank you gentlemen for attending again, this is you last chance to make an impression… SP: I nearly didn’t make it [...]
Sajith Premadasa’s salutary call to refrain from causing ethnic strife in the pursuit of political power
One of the most striking features of Presidential Election campaign 2019 has been the absence of a discourse on the critical concerns that the country has been faced with. Usually, a National Election should provide the opportunity for the candidates to articulate their own vision of what trajectory the country should take, and attempt to [...]