Oct 31 (DN) Supreme Court yesterday reserved its order for November 4 to determine whether it should grant an interim order suspending the operation of the gazette notification which brought the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) under the purview of Defence Ministry. A Supreme Court three-judge-bench comprising Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, L.T.B. Dehideniya and Murdu Fernando made this order pursuant to two Fundamental Rights petitions filed against bringing the SLRC under more..

Oct 31 (TM) Five Tamil political parties who met today (30) with regards to the Prez election further postponed their stand on the issue and told Tamils to vote for any candidate they like during the postal voting tomorrow (31). Parties met for talks today in an attempt to reach a final decision on who they must support at the election. However, as Prez candidate Sajith Premadasa has yet to release his election manifesto more..

Oct 31 (AD) United Peace Alliance (UPA) has decided to support SLPP prez candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Issuing a statement UPA stated that they, during three rounds of talks with the SLPP, discussed deeply into the issues of the Muslim community and the political aims of the Muslims. The SLPP had responded positively to the 13 requests forwarded by the Alliance. It further informed that a written agreement will be signed between UPA & SLPP in the upcoming days. more..

Oct 31 (DM) Election Commission (EC) is yet to resolve reported discrepancies in the results of two wards in Wennapuwa in the 2018 Local Govt (LG) elections. The discrepancies were disclosed in a complaint by SLPP member Sanjaya Hewawitharana to Elections’ Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya in Feb 2019, Commission member Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole said. “They actually forgot to tally the votes from one voting area, and this inconsistency was noted by SLPP member” more..

Oct 31 (DC) An interesting controversy over the use, or rather the boycott, of Tamil has erupted in Sri Lanka as Minister Mano Ganesan, has flagged a notice put up by a popular restaurant in Colombo warning its staff against speaking in Tamil. “Peppermint Cafe, a pvtly owned café at 76 Wijerama Mw, I'm told, displays this notice violating Chapter III-Fundamental Rights Clause 12-Right to Equality of the Constitution. more..

Oct 31 (AD) The student-centric education system will be reintroduced instead of the current examination-centric system, says SLPP Prez Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He expressed these views addressing a public meeting in Ruwanwella. The current generation of youth has not developed a skill that is competent as a result of the long-term education system that is exam-centric, he said. Rajapaksa pointed out that information technology and digital technology is a great more..

Oct 31 (DM) Prez Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate and inquire into the Easter Sunday terror attacks will commence its commission’s proceedings today, Secretary to the Commission H.M.B.P. Herath said. 5-member committee will be chaired by Court of Appeal Judge Janak de Silva while the other members are CoA Judge Nissanka Karunaratne, retired CoA Judge Nihal Rajapaksa, Retired HC Judge Bandula Atapattu and former Justice Ministry Secretary W.M.M. Adhikari. more..

Oct 31 (Island) UNP leader and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the govt would sign the agreement on USD 480 mn MCC grant before the presidential election on Nov 16, 2019. PM said so in response to a query at a Temple Trees event where he compared the entire range of public sector projects, including welfare measures during the Rajapaksa administration and the period after the last prez election on Jan 9, 2015. more..

Oct 31 (DM) Saturday (26) marked the 1st anniversary of last year’s infamous conspiracy, which shook and shocked the entire country and the international community. On this the darkest day in the political history of Sri Lanka, President Sirisena sacked PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and his govt and replaced it with a Mahinda Rajapaksa-led govt. President then prorogued Parliament before subsequently dissolving it and declaring a general election thereafter. more..

Oct 31 (DM) Sunday (27) marked Deepavali and Hindus showed huge interest to celebrate the event, also named as Festival of Lights. A deeper study into Hindu literature reveal that the true meaning of deepavali (also Deewali) is about searching for the inner light which is possible through self-realisation. But whether the Tamil community is in the frame of mind to make progress spiritually is a big question given that past govts, including the present, doing very little to solve the national question. more..

Oct 31 (DM) Elections come and go. People and parties come to power. They come and go. Agreements sometimes have longer shelf lives. This is why we have to be very worried about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact which Cabinet approved recently. Sure, it’s a project that was mooted a long time ago, negotiations having begun way back in 2001 when at that time too Ranil Wickremesinghe was PM. more..

Oct 31 (EN) With just about six months of allowing people to get on with their economic lives peacefully, central bank has bombarded the monetary system with tens of billions of printed rupees to unleash another bout of instability. The current administration’s economic performance – which was lacking in growth boosting liberalizations, but continued state expansion and worsened price controls – was badly hit by successive bouts more..

Oct 31 (DM) One of the top priorities of a Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led govt would be to eliminate corruption and misappropriation in the public sector and as such, in the shortest possible time Arjuna Mahendran would be brought back to Sri Lanka from Singapore after Nov 16, General Secretary of the UPFA, Mahinda Amaraweera said. He noted that the new govt would immediately start talks with the Singaporean Govt to apprehend and more..

Oct 31 (DM) Niwahal Sithuvili Sithana Sithath Udarai reads the first stanza of Pandit W. D. Amaradeva’s popular track written by Dolton Alwis. It translates to great is the mind of an independent thinker. But for centuries, free-thinkers and those with creative ideas and rich imaginations were viewed as a threat to conventional society. Recently, post-modernist writer and poet Shakthika Sathkumara was arrested for expressing more..

Oct 31 (Island) PAFFREL will start work on bringing in new legislation to prevent dummy candidates from contesting future prez elections, PAFFREL executive director, Rohana Hettiarachchi said. He said that at a recent meeting at the NEC, its chairman, Mahinda Deshapriya said that there were 12 dummy candidates fielded by the two main political parties. "Chairman asked all these candidates whether they wanted polling more..

Oct 31 (Island) Three committees appointed to investigate and find out what caused the deaths of seven elephants in the Anuradhpura District a few weeks ago have not yet revealed their findings. Organ parts taken from the dead elephants were sent to the Govt Analyst’s Department, Veterinary Surgeons Institute, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the Peradeniya Uni for testing. more..

Oct 31 (DN) Certain sections of the mainstream mass media were acting in breach of Elections Commission media guidelines in a subtle manner, elections watchdog Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) said. CAFFE drew special attention to news coverage by certain TV channels that, it said, were giving prominence to certain prez candidates over others. Elections Commissioner Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole said that more..

Oct 31 (DM) With the rectification of pension anomalies, the payment of arrears of over half a million pensioners would be paid on the Nov 8 with the five months arrears, Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara said. He said 95% of pension payment anomalies had been removed and ready to pay their arrears from Nov. "More than 500,000 applications had already been processed. There were several issues on misplaced and more..

Oct 31 (DM) People should be aware about scammers who use social media, impersonating a loan company who is looking to empty your bank account once you share your financial data, the Computer Emergency Readiness Team/Co-ordination Centre (CERT|CC) warned. CERT|CC Information Security Engineer Ravindu Meegasmulla said that social media had become a tool for such on-line scammers. more..

Oct 31 (AD) Hearing of the case filed by the Attorney General against former Chief Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Colombo Ananda Samarasekara for allegedly concealing evidence in the Wasim Thajudeen murder case was postponed until Feb 24. When the case was taken up before the Colombo HC Judge Manjula Thilakaratne today, the charge sheet against the defendant was read out in open court. more..

Oct 31 (CT) The Economy is expected to grow at the rate of 7.5% in the next five years, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe speaking to reporters at Temple Trees yesterday said. This is in contrast to an envisaged 2.6% low growth predicted for this year by the ADB as opposed to a relatively higher 3.2% growth experienced last year. This year's slowdown is largely attributed to Bloody Easter Sunday compounded by Prez Polls due to be held in another 16 days time on 16 Nov, with the political more..

Oct 31 (FT) These lines are from an emotive piece of poetry written by the Protestant Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his prison cell in Nazi Germany, shortly before he was executed. Vocal opposition to the genocidal persecution of Jews was his crime. Pastor Bonhoeffer’s very human anguished cry addressed the pivotal question of self that haunts all of us sane people when confronted with primitive tribal prejudice. It affirmed the ceaseless search for our identity and our values. more..

Oct 31 (DN) Back-bencher MP Namal Rajapaksa has offered to substitute for his uncle and SLPP prez candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa to take up NDF candidate Minister Sajith Premadasa’s challenge for a live televised policy debate between candidates. Rajapaksa, eldest son of Opposition Leader and former Prez Mahinda Rajapaksa, made this offer to stand-in for candidate Gotabaya Rajapakasa in a debate while speaking at a Rajapaksa campaign rally in Dummalasuriya on Tuesday. more..

Oct 31 (DN) SL Air Force under the guidance of the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Sumangala Dias along with MAS Holdings, Forest Department and the Uni of Peradeniya launched the second wave of seed bombing inside the forests of Lahugala in Ampara Area. The Command Agro Unit and MAS together with the Forest Department organized this mission to achieve the aim of increasing SL’s forest cover in order to achieve the sustainable development goals of the country more..

Oct 31 (EN) Election Commission announced a crackdown on Facebook posts violating campaign laws governing the Nov 16 polls and vowed to jail offenders for up to 3 years. Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said that several public servants who voted by post on Thursday had shared photos of their marked ballots on Facebook. “This is a clear violation of election law, we will track down who did this. more..

Oct 31 (RN) Former Prez Chandrika Kumaratunga will join Sajith Premadasa’s campaign for the Presidency tomorrow, UNF announced today. Kumaratunga has not been happy with the decision by the SLFP deciding to back the candidacy of the SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa. She and another senior SLFP leader MP Kumara Welgama are opposed to the move. It is not clear whether Welgama will also be joining the UNF which is backing the DNF coalition from which more..

Oct 31 (MFA) Embassy of SL in Manila, in cooperation with SL Tourism Promotion Bureau, participated at the World Travel Expo from 25-27 Oct at the SMX Convention Center-Manila, Pasay City, Philippines. World Travel Expo 2019 was formally inaugurated with the ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony attended by Councilor of the 2nd District of Pasay City Joey Calixto Isidro, Ambassador-designate of SL to the Philippines Shobini Gunasekera, AD Asia Officials and more..

Oct 31 (AD) The election manifesto of NDF’s prez candidate Minister Sajith Premadasa has been launched a short while ago. The ceremony commenced at Kandy this morning under the auspices of the NDF prez candidate, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and other ministers and MPs of the alliance. After the manifesto named Sajith’s Social Revolution was ceremonially unveiled, Premadasa symbolically handed over copies of manifesto more..

Oct 31 (RN) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe’s assertion that he will remain in office after Sajith Premadasa becomes President has boosted Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s campaign, the SLPP said today. Senior SLPP MP Sarath Amunugama said Wickremesinghe had caused a disaster for Premadasa’s campaign and it would give a to their campaign. Amunugama said that although NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa dodged the issue several times, the truth has come to light. more..

Oct 31 (AD) IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando have filed a revision application with the Court of Appeal requesting to release them on bail. AG Dappula de Livera has been cited as the respondent of this revision application. The petitioners have stated that they were arrested by the CID and later remanded by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court under murder charges, for allegedly failing to prevent the coordinated terror attacks that took place on more..

Oct 31 (AD) The prez candidate of SLPP said the political parties that signed the agreement to form a new coalition today unified for a common purpose. The members of these 17 political parties who love the country have formed the biggest ever alliance in Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa said further. An accord was inked this morning at The Foundation Institute with the auspices of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, SLPP chairman more..

Oct 31 (Island) The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) requested the National Elections Commission (NEC) to take action to prevent Prez Sirisena from declaring open an unfinished office complex next to the Polonnaruwa District Secretariat on Nov 3. CMEV National Coordinator, Manjula Gajanayake said that although Sirisena had declared that he would not take part in election activities, Governors who directly represented him had been supporting various candidates. more..

Oct 31 (AD) Elections Commission has issued directives prohibiting public service officers from posting photographs of their vote on Facebook. The Chairman of the Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya said that it is regrettable to observe state officials continuing to post photographs of their vote on social media despite the ban. However, if the Elections Commission tracks down the individual who posted such photos, they will be subjected to jail time of at least 3 years, he added. more..

Oct 31 (RN) A tense moment arose at an Election Commission media briefing today as Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya publicly declared that a controversial comment attributed to Commission Member Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole was the personal opinion of an inexperienced election official. Prof. Hoole, according to Deshapriiya, had told the media that no candidate in the prez election would secure more than 50% of the vote. more..

Oct 31 (Island) Seven Provincial Governors were directly or indirectly supporting the two main candidates in the Prez Election, Acting Executive Director of the CaFFE Manas Makeen sai. He said that four Governors that support SLPP Prez candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa were doing so openly while three Governors supported NDF Prez candidate, Sajith Premadasa indirectly. "A.J.M. Muzammil, Governor of the Western Province, Shan Wijayalal de Silva, Governor of the Eastern more..

Oct 31 (RN) UNP has complained to the Elections Commission about the incident when power was shut off at the landing site in Kurunegala forcing the helicopter carrying Sajith Premadasa to abort the night landing yesterday. Premadasa was scheduled to address a rally in Kurunegala when the incident took place. He had to cancel his appearance at the meeting because of this incident. Naveen Hettiyadurage, a lawyer representing the UNP told reporters that the party requests more..

Oct 31 (DM) Court of Appeal today confirmed its order: granting a stay order till Dec 3 in favour of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa preventing him being summoned as a witness to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court. Court of Appeal held that the initial stay order given on Sept 24th was not made by lack of due regard to the law or facts. Justice Deepani Wijesundara sat alone giving the order. more..

Oct 31 (DM) Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement was drafted with the consent of the Attorney General and would be presented in Parliament, the Finance Ministry said today. It said the whole process and the final Agreements were done under the guidance of the Attorney General and well within the legal framework. It said in a statement that final negotiations on the Compact were conducted in Oct 2018 between the MCC and a Cabinet approved GoSL delegation which more..

Oct 31 (AD) State Minister Eran Wickramaratne said the three most important pillars of NDF Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa’s election manifesto includes a strong nation, a competitive economy and a just society. The State Minister of Finance made these remarks while speaking during a ceremony to launch the manifesto - Sajith’s Social Revolution in Kandy today (31), which was attended by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and other ministers and MPs of the alliance. more..