Gen. Janaka riled by Gen. Anuruddha's remarks

General Ratwatte's comments have drawn angry reactions from Major General Janaka Perera who has written both to the ITN and Lakhanda radio demanding an apology.

The ITN read out excerpts of the letter sent by Major General Janaka Perera and repeated the interview with General Ratwatte.

Maj. Gen. Perera has expressed his displeasure over a similar programme telecast in May and requested the termination of such programmes as they demoralise the security forces.

Asking for an apology through his lawyer Major General Perera said the programme 'Janatha Adikaranaya' telecast on September 24 and repeated on the 30th made false and defamatory references to him. "It is no man but men who win battles," allegedly stated by Mr. Ratwatte during the programme was said to refer to Maj. Gen. Perera's past performances.

These references, he said, were made with the intention of ridiculing him and other members of the forces who fought under his command.

Campaign ends but monitors fear more violence

The two independent election monitoring groups CMEV and PAFFREL have identified the Western Province as the worst affected with Gampaha district topping the list -but the lists given by the two groups shows a massive difference.

According to the Centre for Monitoring election Violence 1473 incidents have been reported by Friday evening, but the People's Action front For Free and Fair Election said it had received only 289 complaints by yesterday.

The CMEV said 128 incidents were reported from Gampaha district and 101 from Colombo and 64 from Kalutara.

It said the NW Province came second on the list with Kurunegala reporting 113 incidents and Puttalam 101. Next came the Central Province with 187 incidents , with Kandy district having 96, Matale 49 and Nuwara Eliya 42.

The North Central Province had 168 incidents - Anuradhapura having 92 and Polonnaruwa 76.

PAFFREL said it had received the highest number of 72 complaints from the Central Province. it said that 223 complaints of the 289 complaints were serious.

Drama over postal ballot boxes in Galle

By Chandani Kirinde

Reports said that amid rumours, UNP supporters had barricaded the main road opposite the Town Hall around 5.00 p.m. and searched vehicles. 

It is reported that after the UNP supporters protested the ballot boxes were re-examined and released by officials at Galle Kachcheri.

This was done in the presence of officials of all parties and no tampering was found. 

A UNP candidate in the district complained that Galle was the only place where there was no safety locker to keep postal ballot boxes and hence they were kept in a room at the District Secretariat with inadequate security.

Uphold the law-CRM

Often police officers are forced to ignore the offences taking place around them or are obliged to favour particular parties / candidates due to pressure from various levels, the CRM reported.

"It is a disgraceful feature in Sri Lankan political life that sometimes such pressures come from responsible people who should know better," a CRM statement said.

18 % still undecided on whom to vote for

This series of opinion polls have been conducted by one of Sri Lanka's leading market and economic research firms, ORG-MARG SMART. The objective of conducting these polls is to understand the dynamics of perceptions and attitudes towards macro issues and to increase awareness and acceptance about this kind of polling in this country. The readers of the findings should keep in mind the margins of error and the possible favourable bias towards the ruling party when coming to conclusions based on these results. As one of the key incidences that occurred during this wave, the respondents were asked on their view on the effect of the death of SLMC leader M.H.M. Ashraff on the political scenario.

It is interesting to note that the majority view was that the death of SLMC leader Mr. M.H.M Ashraff will have a negative impact on the PA while 22% said it wouldn't have a major impact. We have further analysed below to see the effect this incidence would have had on the Muslim voters' party preference.

The two bars on either side show how the Muslim voters' preference for parties changed after Mr. Ashraff's sudden death. It's clear that majority of the Muslim votes is for the UNP and that Ashraff's death had not caused any significant effect on this base across the two waves. The most significant difference is the undecided proportion has reduced and gone for the PA and SLMC in that order.

As a final comparison of the two leading political parties' capabilities, the voters were asked to compare the two parties on handling each of the issues below and mention which party they would think would be better in handling them.

It is clearly seen that the voters are split on who can handle the issues better. The UNP has always scored high on Economy related issues while the PA on issues such as stopping the N-E war, media freedom and human rights. So the key question now is to figure out, do the Sri Lankan voter give more weight to the economy related issues or to the human rights related issues or do they just vote by habit and only talk about issues!!

The results below is an indication of how they are finally going to vote, regardless of what they think of issues and who they think can handle them.

The reader should note that the difference seen above for the PA and UNP are not significant since the differences are less than the margins of error in these estimates. The key takeout of this finding is that the two leading parties are neck to neck with almost no gap considering the margins of error. However, one should note the 18% who say they are still undecided will finally decide the outcome of this election.

ORG-MARG SMART is an independent private market and economic research agency undertaking research mainly in the areas of consumer goods and services. It is the country's largest employer of full time market research staff and works for a multitude of clients both private and public as well as local and foreign. It is a Dutch, Indian and Sri Lankan joint venture.

"Please note that the interpretations of the above data are not of the research agency but of the publishers".

If you want to see further details of these Opinion Polls, visit the OMS web site at www.omsresearch.com.

A commitment to end the agony of our people

That is the only way in which we think the country can remain united. That is the only way in which we think the armed struggle waged in this country for the last 20 years can be brought to an end. We think that bringing the war to an end is a prerequisite for permanent peace and progress in this country. While the whole country has suffered as a result of the war, the Tamil people have suffered the most.

We are a responsible party with a deep commitment to ending the agony of our people and bringing about peace in this country. Without in any way compromising out principles and policies and without succumbing in any way to any blandishments, we have worked with dedication for the achievement of these objectives. We have contributed substantially to whatever constitutional reforms that have been brought about already. For instance, the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

We also contributed immensely towards the evolution of the constitutional proposals which were tabled in Parliament recently. These have been milestones in our journey towards the achievement of our objectives. 

For peace to be brought about, we think there should be a rational dialogue between the Government and those engaged in armed struggle, the LTTE. We think that there should be effective third party international involvement to bring about peace. We also think that there should be international involvement, which can guarantee the effective implementation of any solution arrived at.

On the Tamil side, we think we are the best equipped party on the basis of our proven record to work towards the achievement of their objectives. And this is why we are contesting these elections, primarily in the North and East. These are the reasons why we think that people in the North and East, particularly the Tamil people, should vote for the TULF.

Purawasi Peramuna

We aim to act as a pressure group, says Sirisena Cooray

Leader of Puravasi Peramuna Sirisena Cooray

As President Premadasa said "democracy is about people". If a majority of our people feel that the democratic system cannot provide solutions to the most urgent of their problems and concerns, it will generate a sense of apathy about democratic politics and the democratic system. This will strengthen various extremist forces who dream of replacing pluralist democracy with a totalitarian society based on either class or ethnicity and religion.

Unfortunately, the UNP, like the PA has become a part of the problem rather than the solution. The UNP was able to save the system in 1989, because it had a leader who focused like a laser beam on urgent national and popular issues. Under his leadership the country progressed rapidly and people of all classes prospered. The UNP of today has abandoned those policies and programmes. Therefore it has failed to provide a sense of hope to our beleaguered people.

The Puravasi Peramuna was formed as a response to this deepening sense of despair among people of all classes. It is necessary to make people realise that democracy can still make an important contribution to the betterment of their lives. How can this be done? By bringing the two main democratic parties back on to the right track. The socio-economic development programme of President Premadasa is the only way forward for the country. Our aim is to act as a lobby or pressure group which forces the governing party to be sensitive to the concerns and prioritise the problems of the people, instead of focusing on their narrow partisan needs. We hope to do this by getting a strong representation in Parliament.

Ours is not an extremist party based on ethnicity or religion. We believe that Sri Lanka belongs to all its citizens equally. The country can be saved only through a programme which protects the dignity of all its citizens. Extremism of any variety can only set the country on fire again and this will hurt all our people irrespective of ethnicity, religion and class. Instability and turbulence in the south will hurt the economy, frighten away foreign investors and create more unemployment and poverty. 

The Puravasi Peramuna is the only party with an agenda which is not divisive, which is on the contrary, sane, national and forward looking. Only an agenda like ours can heal the divisions in our society, creating a sense of discipline and efficiency. We have people with amply proven ability and rich experience to help implement that agenda. Therefore we are confident that we can play a major role in the necessary task of creating a growing economy, an efficient administration and a stable, fair and prosperous society. 

Liberal Party

Liberal Party is a principled non-political alternative

Liberalism offers a philosophy that addresses the main questions in this country. The main principles of Liberalism are equal rights and equal opportunities. Apart from obvious acts of unfairness and bullying in the past 50 years, there has been no concerted policy for economic and personal development in deprived areas of the country, not only in the North and East but in Hambantota, Polonnaruwa, Matale and Puttalam. So the Liberal philosophy is maximising the chances of those who are worst off. 
 

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Liberal Party  leader

For economic development, we need a free economy. A free economy means a free media, democratic choice and accountability, whereas the practices of the last 25 years show that both UNP and SLFP want political controls, control of information, monopolies and state handouts particularly for political benefits.

We also believe that a good government is one that listens to other people and other views and not the so called strong government with 2/3 majorities and a dictatorial President. It is under so-called strong governments that the country has been made weaker during 1970 - 77, 82 - 89, and even now with a President in total control of her party. 

However, the other so-called minor parties are seriously flawed, we believe, because they either represent only one race or one segment of society or outdated statist economic ideas. So for a moderate principled alternative to big party dominated politics, we feel people should vote for the Liberal Party.

We represent the non-political alternative because people have distinguished themselves in other socially useful fields without having only professional politicians who make a living from their politics. 

Focus on denial of vote to migrant workers

By Faraza Farook

The Centre has appealed to the Elections Commissioner that provisions be made to enable Sri Lankans working abroad to exercise their franchise, MSC Director David Soysa said at a press briefing held last week.

Of the estimated one million migrant workers, 466,573 persons were registered voters during the period 1997 to 1999, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has stated. Unlike some countries where postal voting is available for their nationals abroad, Sri Lankans abroad are deprived of this fundamental right. 

The MSC has written to many political parties calling for their support to make provision for migrant workers to vote at future elections. The MSC is planning to take up the issue again with the Elections Commissioner later this month to ensure that steps are taken to implement it.

Ways of implementing the facilities to vote were also being discussed, Mr. Soysa said. 

At a migrant workers' meeting in late September, the participants have opposed the proxy voting system, as they feared it could lead to abuse. 

Their absence is often misused during elections, which results sometimes in rigging and stuffing of ballot boxes, Mr. Soysa pointed out. 

"With minimal adjustments to the existing law, we can extend the franchise to a category of people who don't have access to exercise their fundamental right," Mr. Soysa said. 

" Migrant workers are unable to voice their opinion on decisions taken by the Government about them. However, if this system is developed, it will create a liaison between the Government and the migrant workers," he said.

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