Dissanayake decides to continue as Election Commissioner

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 February 2010, 13:28 GMT]
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake who twice asked the government to release him from the job Wednesday announced that he would continue to hold the post and has decided to continue in service following appeals by the joint opposition and his staff. “I will continue in my position as Election Commissioner and conduct the forthcoming parliamentary general election,” he added. Immediately after the 2010 presidential election he announced his resignation from the post and thereafter he did not meet the media till Wednesday.
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UNP to boycott SL Independence Day celebrations in Kandy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 14:40 GMT]
Marking its protest over alleged harassment of Sarath Fonseka's supporters, the main Sri Lankan opposition party, the UNP, decided on Tuesday to boycott the 62nd Sri Lankan Independence Day celebrations in Kandy on Thursday, the party's General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told media in Colombo.
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New Chief of Staff appointed for SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 14:53 GMT]
Former military spokesman Major General Daya Ratnayake has been appointed the Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) with immadiate effect on Saturday, defense sources from Colombo said. Major General Daya Ratnayake was earlier the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation.
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STF searches Fonseka’s political office in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 14:11 GMT]
The office of the defeated opposition common presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka was under siege Friday afternoon by Special Task Force (STF) of Sri Lanka Police. About two hundred STF personnel surrounded the office of Fonseka which is located near Royal College in Colombo along Rajkeeya Mawatte. Some masked STF personnel entered the office and started searching the premises, sources in Colombo said.
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Democracy in Sri Lanka: new lessons add to old ones

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:59 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa gains a victory of big margin in the presidential elections of Sri Lanka and this has not surprised Tamil nationalist circles. The voters of Sinhala Nation have very clearly endorsed a regime accused of genocide and war crimes against Tamils. Democracy insisting the need to recognise two Nation States in the island is an old lesson. But the new lesson is to the International Community, especially to the West that is slipping for the third time within one year, first in stopping the war, then in human rights action in the UN and now in bringing out a 'democratic' regime change. There is also a lesson to revisionist Tamil polity and media that wasted the crucial time of Tamils by harping on regime change and not concentrating on the own political organisation of Tamil nationalism.
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No manipulation in presidential election results: Premajayantha

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:24 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday denied any kind of involvement in the manipulation the presidential election results. The Secretary General of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and a senior minister in Rajapaksa cabinet, Susil Premjayantha at a news briefing held Wednesday evening denied the allegation that a senior presidential advisor had been seen in the office of the Commissioner of Elections.
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Mahinda Rajapakse declared sixth executive president of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 13:20 GMT]
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake declared Wednesday evening that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been elected sixth executive president in Tuesday’s presidential election. President Rajapaksa polled 6,015,934 (57.88 %) per cent of the vote against the 4,173,185 (40.15 %) secured by opposition common candidate Sarath Fonseka.
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Fonseka urges Commissioner of Elections to ensure his security

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 10:08 GMT]
Former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka has urged the Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections to take steps to ensure his security, claiming there were attempts to arrest him. The movement of Fonseka remains restricted as troops have surrounded the hotel. Meanwhile, Mahinda Rajapaksa continued his lead by a majority of 1.8 million votes when final counting was in progress. He polled 5,885,836 (57.88) against Gen Sarath Fonseka's 4,082,363 (40.15) counted till 3:00 p.m.
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Freedom of movement of Fonseka restricted: Sri Lankan opposition

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 10:06 GMT]
The main opposition parties United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Wednesday evening at a hurriedly convened press briefing announced that they have decided to request the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure freedom of movement and adequate security to the common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka.
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Rajapakse leading by one million votes in 80 electorates with 2.9 million votes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 08:17 GMT]
The incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has polled 2,960.507 (60.27%) votes and General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, common opposition candidate received 1,690,990 (37.99%) votes in eighty of a total of 160 electorates so far results announced. Mahinda Rajapakse is leading by 1, 097, 034 votes.
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SL forces surround Fonseka's hotel

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 05:17 GMT]
Heavily armed Sri Lankan forces have surrounded Wednesday Cinnamon Lake hotel in Colombo, where opposition presidential candidate and former Sri Lanka Army General (retd) Sarath Fonseka was residing with opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and JVP leader Somawanse Amarasinghe. Sarath Fonseka, who is trailing in the presidential contest against his former Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa was scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday morning, but journalists were not allowed to reach the hotel and were waiting at Sri Sittampalam Gardiner Mawatte. In the meantime, Sri Lankan military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara has alleged that Sarath Fonseka was harbouring SLA deserters inside the hotel. Military has also been deployed around media outlets in Colombo.
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Rajapakse polls 59.63% votes, Fonseka 38.54% in 35 electorates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 02:52 GMT]
In the thirty five electorates seats of 160 seats announced up to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, Sri Lanka's current President Mahinda Rajapaksa won twenty seven electorates and the rest went to General Sarath Fonseka.The total votes polled by Mahinda Rajapakse has risen to 1,285,074 (59.63) against Gen Sarath Fonseka’s 830,554 (38.54) votes.
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UPFA to file legal action against Fonseka: Premjayantha

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 18:34 GMT]
Susil Premjayantha, general secretary of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and a senior minister in the government led by incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa Tuesday evening said that his party would challenge the victory of General (retd) Sarath Fonseka in Court of Law if he becomes elected president. He made the announcement after the closure of presidential poll and after counting of postal votes began.
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Fonseka leads in North-East, Rajapaksa in South in postal vote count

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 18:26 GMT]
Former SLA Commander General (retd) Sarath Foneseka has received 3,173 postal votes in Jaffna while SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa received 892 votes. Jaffna MP M.K. Sivajilingam got 293 votes. Meanwhile, reports from Batticaloa also indicate that Fonseka was leading in the count of postal votes.
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Voting Mahinda or Fonseka is submission to Colombo-centric system

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 18:10 GMT]
Eezham Tamils need not bother much about the outcome of the presidential elections. Whether Mahinda or Fonseka matters the same, says a senior journalist in Jaffna. Only the war criminals, their international abetters and the geopolitical competitors have to worry about the elections and it is their problem. Tamils have to concentrate in organizing their own polity and in demonstrating it. But if they abstain from voting there are people waiting to stuff the boxes. If Tamils want to register opinion and see neither of the main candidates get 50 percent they should cast the first vote to a third person and of all the candidates the moral obligation of Tamils is to vote for Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne. Looking upon the Colombo-centric system is the curse of Tamils for ages and instead of destabilising it, any participatory politics amounts to only submission to the system, he further said.
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Chandrika Kumaratunga extends support to Fonseka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 13:29 GMT]
Chandrika Kumaratunga, former executive president of Sri Lanka is reported to have extended her support to General (retd) Sarath Fonseka Sunday in the forthcoming presidential poll when the latter met her at her ancestral home in Attanagalla, according to initial reports reaching media sources in Colombo. No further details regarding the meeting between Chandrika Kumaratunga and Fonseka surfaced. General Fonseka travelled to Horogolla Sunday morning to seek her support.
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“Tamils’ votes indispensable to send Mahinda home” - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 January 2010, 03:55 GMT]
“The votes of Tamils are of great value in this presidential election,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, R. Sampanthan said Saturday in a big election campaign meeting held Saturday around 3:00 p.m in Nalloor Chaddanaathar Koayil area, in which nearly four thousand people from various parts of the peninsula participated, sources in Jaffna said. “After considering various pressing issues including the resettlement of Vanni people in their places we decided to offer our support to Sarath Fonseka,” he said. “He agreed to consider our demands favourably while Mahinda was not prepared to give in on any of them and therefore we decided to support Sarath Fonseka in this presidential election,” Sampanthan further said.
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Police search Karu Jayasuriya's ancestral home

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 12:52 GMT]
An armed police team Friday night searched the ancestral home of the wife of Karu Jayasuriya, who currently holds the post of the Deputy Leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) on an alleged report that arms and printed matters of defamatory nature were stored in there house. But nothing had been found as alleged in his residence, according to Karu Jayasuriya to media
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Six Fonseka election offices destroyed, JVP complains

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 11:35 GMT]
Armed gangs believed to be supporters of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday night destroyed six election propaganda offices of common opposition candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka in separate incidents in the Gampaha district in the western province, according to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) media spokesman.
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HRW calls for international investigations into war crimes

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 04:57 GMT]
Noting that the "verbal acrobatics" of Sri Lankan officials in an attempt to "dismiss the shocking mobile phone video...showing Sri Lanka soldiers summarily executing naked and bound [Tamil] captives" evokes memories of Orwell's 1984, Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch's emergencies director and an expert in humanitarian crises, in the Thursday edition of Guardian, warns that Sri Lankan officials cannot hide the reality of what happened during this brutal conflict and its continuing impact on Sri Lankan society, and that Sri Lanka's aggressive denial of its crimes only results in escalation of lost credibililty. HRW urges Ban Ki-moon to establish "an independent international investigation to establish the truth of what happened in Sri Lanka, an essential step toward accountability for the serious crimes committed there."
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