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Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) leader S Shiritharan extended his support to presidential candidate P Ariyanenthiran despite his party yet to make a final decision on which candidate it will support in the upcoming election. Mr Shritharan met Tamil ‘common candidate’ Ariyanenthiran, who is also a Central Committee member of ITAK, on Thursday at his [...]
Presidential politics at play in Parliament: Thalatha quits making Ranil-Sajith unity appeal
By Chandani Kirinde It could be the last few weeks of the Ninth Parliament of Sri Lanka, but even on a single sitting day this week, there was enough drama to keep both the legislators and the public engaged at a time when Parliament’s proceedings have been largely overshadowed by the presidential election campaign. With [...]
JVP’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake: A man for all religions, for this election season
For lifelong self-professed atheist JVP leader Anura Kumara, to whom all modes of religions are nothing but anathema, it has been a metamorphosing week from cocooned irreligious worm to carefree butterfly, flitting from every religious flower to another to suck the divine nectar each possessed. When he suddenly manifested last Friday in the vicinity of [...]
Welcome to alms and now to arms
Somebody quite perceptively named the upcoming rush for the presidency “an election like no other.” As though there isn’t enough evidence to justify this, the government, in its latest move that oozes with wisdom and foresight, has decided to offer arms to MPs ahead of next month’s political bust-up. What is not mentioned is whether [...]
Torn between two leaders
My dear Thalatha, I thought I should write to you when I heard that you had suddenly left the ‘telephone’ party. I must confess this didn’t come as a surprise because rumour had it that this would happen sometime before the big election. So, it was more a question of when it would happen and [...]
Government unrepentant in the face of SC decision on LG polls
The government’s response to recent decisions of the Supreme Court has raised alarm bells for the future of democracy and the Rule of Law in the country. Several decisions made by the Supreme Court have been met with unacceptable responses by the president and the government thereby undermining the independence of the judiciary and respect [...]
Asking to choose between the elections and the economy is a false narrative
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruling this week that President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s defiant action in postponing Local Government polls in 2023, citing a purported lack of funds in the wake of the country’s bankruptcy, had violated the fundamental right to equality and the right to vote of citizens, raises several interesting issues. The ‘thundering’ of the [...]
Policies of presidential candidates decisive for country’s economic future
The presidential election in less than a month is of paramount importance for the country’s economic future. The economic policies of the new president and the government to be elected in the parliamentary election thereafter would determine the direction of the country’s economic future. A decisive result in the presidential election too would be of [...]
PM explains President’s plans for future Sri Lanka
Says Puluwan Sri Lanka will emerge as a political force for other elections Notes most people have forgotten that we’re still in debt and insists President’s economic programme be allowed to go on to build a stable country Political crossovers in full swing as main candidates intensify campaign By Our Political Editor They grew [...]
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