A UNP committee set up to look into party reforms did not submit its report as expected yesterday and had asked for time till next Monday, a spokesman said.

United National Party (UNP) spokesman and Galle district parliamentarian Gayantha Karunatilleke told a news conference yesterday the report had been delayed as the committee headed by former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera wished to discuss the proposals further with party members. (Read More) 

The main opposition UNP led United National Front (UNF) alliance is facing further defections.
Among those tipped to pole-vault is Sri Ranga Jayaratnam, the former MTV personality who contested on the UPF ticket. Sri Ranga, who led a newly registered political party named Purawesi Peramuna (Citizens Front), fell out with the crisis hit UNP leadership over the non allocation of a national list seat to his party. Sri Ranga stayed in parliament when the opposition walked out from the House in protest against preventing DNA leader Gen (retired) Fonseka from attending parliament on Wednesday.

Another potential candidate to cross over to the government is the UNP MP for Kandy district Abdul Cader who surprisingly decided to vote with the UPFA in favour of the extension of the State of Emergency. However, when contacted by Lakbima news, he squashed swirling speculation that he had decided to ditch his party.

MP Cader said that he had only taken the decision to cast his vote in favour of the extension of the State of Emergency and that there was nothing more to it.
He insisted that merely voting with the UPFA cannot be construed as either siding with or joining the government, and as of now he has no intention of doing so and that he would remain with the UNP.

When the vote on the extension of the State of Emergency by a month took place, only three UNP MPs had remained in the legislature, one of whom was Abdul Cader.
Speculation was also rife, in the political circles that the UNP had decided to call for explanation from MP Cader over his decision to vote with the government.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told Parliament yesterday that missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda had used seven sim cards and had made many suspicious phone calls.

Speaking during the adjournment debate on Eknaigoda’s disappearance in the House yesterday the minister said that the missing journalist had contacted a person in Valachchenai as well. The minister assured that all these pieces of evidence now with the Homagama police who were investigating the disappearance of the senior journalist. “There is nothing wrong in the opposition talking on behalf of journalists, but they should not try to get political advantages out of it,” he said, stressing that such actions would not help journalists.

Explaining the reasons for this the minister said that there was evidence to suggest that a large number of persons who had gone ‘missing’ had actually gone abroad. Mr. Rambukwella explained that there was proof that they had applied for visas to leave the country although the opposition had made a huge fuss about these incidents. (Read More)

The Opposition yesterday brought to the notice of the Speaker that the President was violating the Constitution by allocating funds to ministries without presenting a Vote on Account or a Budget.Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa said that he would look into the matter and inform the House, at a later date, his views on the issue.

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the House could debate the fiscal responsibility of parliament on Thursday (6).

Kurunegala District UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara: The supremacy of Parliament has deteriorated. The Constitution has given Parliament all powers of fiscal responsibility. According to section 150 (3) of the Constitution, the President has no power to allocate funds to ministries. (Read More)

The low voter turnout at the April 08th General Election has shown that the people’s faith in the electoral system has reached an all time low. And the allegations made by several defeated United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidates about preferential votes are doing further damage to the already shaky reputation of the Department of Elections.
Controversy surrounding the manipulation of preferential votes is nothing new to Sri Lanka but it is only in the last three elections that it has become one of the most popular topics for public discussion.

In the Southern Provincial Council election, Nishantha Muthuhettigama claimed that he had been robbed of the preferential votes by members of his own party. In the presidential election, allegations of rigging were raised by the supporters of Gen. Sarath Fonseka and this time in general election many candidates who did not win, from Chandana Kathriarachchi to Geetha Kumarasinghe are making the same claim.

Manipulating preferential votes

But is it possible for someone to manipulate preferential votes? While the department officials claim its impossible, election monitors claim that the biggest problem with the counting of votes is that there is no transparency in the process. Counting centres are off limits not only to the public but also to some of the candidates.

“Changing or manipulating the preferential votes is theoretically impossible. According to protocol, each bundle of 50 ballot papers gets counted thrice by different agents who tabulate the number separately. But then again I am talking about an area that is not open to us. Election monitors are not allowed to be present at the counting centres and therefore, we can’t rule the possibility out,” said Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon.

During each election, representatives of minor politicians of each party are chased away from counting centres by the big shots in a particular area. The police who are there to maintain order and prevent the entry of unauthorized personnel into the site allow this to happen --- fearing the retribution of winning candidates.

“The biggest problem is that the department of elections has not taken steps to make the counting process transparent. On election night the environment around counting centres always faces heaps of shortcomings,” Tennakoon said. “Only the representatives of the big shots of any party remain in counting centres after midnight. The mid level candidates and their supporters cannot remain in the centres because most of the time they are chased away from the counting centres and the police do not do anything to prevent this. So it is natural that there are rumours and suspicion about what happens after they are chased away from the counting centres. Sometimes when the police try to follow protocol they get into trouble. For example some police officers prevented Susantha Punchinilame from traveling to the counting centre by vehicle and now they are in trouble. There should be a way to look after police officers who carry out orders from vengeful politicians.” (Read More)