Nov 16 (BBC) The ruling party in Sri Lanka has urged the public to vote for a candidate who would work for the betterment of the country, in Thursday’s presidential elections. United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) accused private media institutions of being biased towards their main rival. more..

Nov 16 (TN) An election rally in support of Prime Minister Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, presidential candidate of the UPFA, was held in Uppukulam in Mannar district Tuesday afternoon in contravention of the Election Law. Laws stipulate that electioneering should close on Monday midnight. more..

Nov 16 (TN) Soldiers manning the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoints at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura in Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division are not honoring permits issued by the Trincomalee Government Agent to non-governmental organizations and other agencies to take building materials to LTTE held areas more..

Nov 16 (AM) The decision of the Sri Lankan rebel group, the LTTE, to withhold its crucial endorsement from both candidates in the Nov. 17 presidential election has sparked a wildfire of debate and conjecture in the Sri Lankan media. more..

Nov 16 (BBC) Millions of Sri Lankans will vote in Thursday's crucial presidential vote. But the country's minority Tamils say they are not interested in the election process and may not cast their votes. And that could have a significant impact on the results. more..

Nov 16 (DH) Sri Lanka is going to the polls on Thursday to elect its fifth executive President, an election that promises to be close between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse of the ruling SLFP, and Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP. more..

Nov 16 (Hindu) Campaigning for Sri Lanka's fifth presidential election ended at midnight Monday with major rallies by the two main candidates, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Nov 16 (TN) During the last seven days millions of dead sardines (Salaya fish) piled up along two km beach between the eastern headquarters of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) along the Inner Harbour Road in Trincomalee, sources said. more..

Nov 16 (ANN) The news that over 12% of Sri Lanka’s voters are debarred from taking part in elections and thereby choosing their political representatives is shocking. Yesterday (Nov 15), we reported that nearly one and a half million Sri Lankan migrant workers had been deprived of their voting rights in contravention of international conventions. more..

Nov 16 (TW) When the Presidential election campaign began in earnest two facts were accepted as given. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, the Prime Minister, wooing the Sinhala majority community was going to get the most votes from that segment. The Prime Ministers alignment with Sinhala patriotic forces like the JVP, JHU etc would ensure that. more..

Nov 16 (TN) The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday there is no change in their position on Thursday’s Presidential election from that taken last Friday. Denying newspaper reports that the LTTE was now actively encouraging people to vote in the Presidential elections, more..

Nov 16 (SLA) TWO TAMIL TIGERS (LTTE) in hiding shot and killed one Home Guard and injured another one early this morning (16) around 7.30 a.m. in the general area of HANDAPANWILA, about 25 km southeast of POLONNARUWA while both of them were returning to DIMBULAGALA Police post after their duties. more..

Nov 16 (SLA) TROOPS ON DUTY in OMANTHAI area on Tuesday (15) around 12.50 p.m. observed four rounds of LTTE small arms gunfire directed towards the Forward Defence Line (FDL) of the Security Forces from un-cleared areas, ahead of them. This observation was reported to the SLMM. more..

Nov 16 (SLA) THREE TAMIL TIGERS with presidential election-related handbills, a cyanide capsule and five mobile telephones were arrested at KALAVANCHUKUDY roadblock in BATTICALOA late night on Monday (14). A stock of 1,160 LTTE handbills calling upon the public to boycott the election had the Tamil Tiger emblem printed on those leaflets. more..

Nov 16 (SLA) ONE MORE Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) member received severe injuries on Tuesday (15) around 12.50 p.m. when he was fired upon by a Tamil Tiger (LTTE) pistol man in the general area of KAYTS, JAFFNA. more..

Nov 16 (SLA) THIRTEEN ARMY DESERTERS detained at Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment (VIR) camp at BOYAGANE, KURUNEGALA escaped from their detention cell at about 8.55 p.m. on Tuesday (15) night when attending soldiers opened their cell to provide them with dinner and medicine. more..

Nov 16 (LBO) Sri Lanka is holding its fifth major election in five years Thursday after the Supreme Court rejected attempts by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to extend her term by a year. Voters will elect Sri Lanka's fifth head of state since this former British colony adopted a presidential system borrowing from the US and French constitutions in 1978. more..

Nov 16 (LBO) Sri Lankans may have to call on seers for help, as neither presidential candidate in Thursday's poll, is clear on how they will pay for subsidies or tackle painful economic reforms, analysts said. Presidential hopefuls have promised a welfare state as a temporary cure, more..

Nov 16 (LM) Yesterday's much-awaited final cabinet meeting of President Chandrika Kumaratunga was cancelled much to the surprise and disappointment of the ministers. It is learnt that the ministers were given no reason for this sudden decision while they waited to pose for a group photograph with the President at this farewell meeting. more..

Nov 16 (AT) A major flare up is imminent in the Eastern Sri Lanka with the LTTE getting ready to launch a sudden big attack on Colonel Karuna’s battle hardened cadres, a splinter group from the Tamil separatist organisation of Sri Lanka. more..

Nov 16 (LM) After weeks of furious campaigning all over the country, Opposition Leader and UNP Presidential hopeful, Ranil Wickremesinghe was using the 48 hours preceeding the poll to engage in religious observances and take time out to talk to journalists. more..

Nov 16 (ANN) The Rs12 billion (US$1=Rs101.84) airport project funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) would transform Sri Lanka's Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to a modern airport, says Rohantha Athukorala, director of the National Council for Economic Development (NCED). more..

Nov 16 (ANN) Unidentified gunmen shot dead two policemen in Sri Lanka's troubled east ahead of presidential elections in the island where a nationwide security alert was in force, officials said. The two constables died in separate shootings in the same eastern province where police also found a landmine near a polling station, more..

Nov 16 (PIS) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday observed that views of all parties and shades of opinion should be harnessed by the Government in power in order to achieve peace and economic prosperity. more..

Nov 16 (PIS) A demonstration was held in front of the European Parliament in the Belgium capital Brussels on Monday morning against the Tamil Tigers by a group of peace loving Tamils living in Europe. This is the first time that Tamil people publicly opposed the Tiger terrorist group who claim they are the sole representative of Tamils. more..

Nov 16 (SLE) "Today the whole of Sri Lanka faces a momentous moment in relation to the country, the nation and the religion. We accept that there is a threat to every race and religion in Sri Lanka. On the one hand, it is the cruel terrorist war that is threatening the unitary status of the country. more..

Nov 16 (SAMN) Two of the most powerful senators in the US Congress, Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Biden Jr., co-sponsored a bi-partisan resolution in the US senate on Monday in support of Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror reported Tuesday. more..

Nov 16 (SAMN) Sri Lanka could expect 610,000 tourist arrivals going by current expectations for this year, an increase of 8 per cent from last year, said Peter de Jong, President and CEO, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) at the World Travel Market being held in London. more..

Nov 16 (SAMN) Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has commenced concerted action to deal with diabetes amidst reports that an alarming 15 per cent of the population suffer from this silent yet tormenting disease. more..

Nov 16 (LNP) The Defence Ministry has taken immediate action to stop the airlifting of some 300 Army deserters to the north on a request made by UNP General Secretary N. V. K. K. Weragoda, party sources said last night. more..

Nov 16 (LNP) `My late husband`s image is being used in political advertisements like the one in which milk powder is the subject. This is being done by amoral and bankrupt politicians to gather votes for the party they support. These politicians are no longer respected by the Muslim community. more..

Nov 16 (DN) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday thanked all those who lent their might towards his strong and effective Presidential election campaign the result of which would see him elevated as the country's President on November 18. more..

Nov 16 (Reuters) For some, the key issue in Sri Lanka's presidential poll is how to permanently end civil war. For others, it is the economy. But for many in the country's agricultural heartland, it all comes down to fertiliser. more..

Nov 16 (Reuters) Police wielding AK-47s guarded ballot boxes in Sri Lanka's restive east on Wednesday as thousands of observers and troops fanned out across the island on the eve of a close-fought presidential poll. more..

Nov 16 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka adopted the executive presidential system of government in 1978 reforming the 1972 constitution which ended the Westminster style of governance that existed since the British quit the island in 1948. more..

Nov 16 (Gulf) Political parties and television stations defied the election laws and continued their campaign for tomorrow's presidential polls. The campaigning by key political parties continued despite a ban that came into effect after midnight on Monday. more..

Nov 16 (HT) The breakaway LTTE leader Col Karuna has asked the Tamils of the North East to vote for Mahinda Rajapaksa, candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in the Presidential election of November 17. more..

Nov 16 (AFP) Sri Lanka is holding its fifth major election in five years after the Supreme Court rejected attempts by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to extend her term by a year. Voters will Thursday elect Sri Lanka's fifth head of state since this former British colony adopted a presidential system more..

Nov 16 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers on Wednesday dismissed a report that they had decided to encourage voting at the island's presidential election, saying they remained neutral and were pessimistic about both main candidates. more..

Nov 16 (AP) At least four people were killed in Sri Lanka's volatile eastern region in three separate attacks on Wednesday, a day ahead of presidential election. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels fatally shot a government-appointed village guard in eastern Ampara, hours after another guard was shot dead in Polonnaruwa, more..

Nov 16 (AP) Rebel bombs kill policemen; renegade guerillas attack their former comrades; civilians are gunned down in drive-by shootings. With near-daily violence serving as a backdrop, Thursday's presidential election in Sri Lanka has effectively become a referendum on the island nation's faltering peace process. more..

Nov 17 (KT) ABOUT 14 million Sri Lankans or at least 70 per cent of them will trek to polling booths across the country tomorrow (Nov 17) to elect the country's fifth all-powerful executive president. Has democracy done any good to Sri Lanka? We have been exercising our democratic right since 1931, that is three years after the people of Britain gained this democratic right. more..

Nov 17 (TN) Reports from Jaffna reveal intimidating and underhand activities of the EPDP cadres in organising vote-rigging in Sri Lanka Presidential election. Groups of armed EPDP cadres were seen visiting house to house forcibly collecting the 'ballot-tokens' from residents in islets off Jaffna peninsula, more..

Nov 17 (FMM) Free Media Movement deplores and condemns the grenade attack on journalist I.H. A. Wahab's house which took place midnight 14th November 2005. Mr.Wahab is provincial correspondent of state run television station ITN and Tamil language news paper Thinakaran in Muslim dominated Eastern town of Akkareipattu. more..

Nov 17 (AP) A New Orleans group will perform a traditional song-and-dance show in Sri Lanka to thank the country for its help following Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday. more..

Nov 17 (AFP) A concrete pole in a coconut grove in this southern Sri Lankan town has determined, to some extent at least, how tsunami survivors will vote in Thursday's presidential poll. Most whose whose ravaged homes fall on the seaward side of the pole will be marking their crosses for opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, those on the inland side for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse. more..

Nov 17 (AT) The government’s inability to check the import of edible oil has deprived the people of Sri Lanka of using the pure coconut oil that has been enjoyed by them since ancient times. Adulterating coconut oil with cheap and impure edible oil is being done indiscriminately. more..

Nov 17 (AT) The dominant feature of the presidential elections in Sri Lanka is the transparent schism between the “Bandaranaike dynasty” as represented by incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her own Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who is seeking to fill a perceived vacuum caused by the constitutional demarche that she cannot seek re-election at the expiry of her second tenure. more..

Nov 17 (AT) The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka held its final public meeting for the November 17 presidential election in Colombo on Saturday afternoon. More than 150 workers, students, intellectuals and housewives came to hear the SEP candidate and general secretary Wije Dias. more..

Nov 17 (BBC) Voters in Sri Lanka's Sinhala-majority south will play a key role in deciding the outcome of the 17 November presidential election. The region was one of the areas worst hit when the tsunami struck the island on 26 December last year. more..