UPFA fields disabled soldier against Janaka Perera

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 July 2008, 10:06 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who lost his two legs in an LTTE ambush in which a veteran SLA Commaner Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and eight others including Lieutenant General Wijaya Wimalarathne were killed in Jaffna in 1992, is one of the candidates contesting on the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ticket in the North Central Provincial Council against the main Opposition United National Party (UNP) which is led by its chief ministerial candidate Major General (retd) Janaka Perera, reports said.
Full story >>

NCPC, SPC elections to be held on August 23

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 2008, 09:58 GMT]
Elections to the Sabragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) and North Central provincial Council (NCPC) will be held on August 23, the Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake announced Friday at the closure of nominations. Meanwhile all major political parties, ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which suffered a split some months ago have been contesting all the four districts in the two provinces.
Full story >>

UPFA seeks TMVP candidates to woo Tamils in Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 11:05 GMT]
The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said Thursday that will include members from the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) as UPFA ticket for Polonnaruwa district in the forthcoming North Central Provincial Council elections, party sources said.
Full story >>

CWC, UPF decide to contest SPC election separately

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 July 2008, 01:34 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF), allies of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have decided to contest the Sabragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) separately. Leaders of the CWC and UPF are holding ministerial posts in the cabinet of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>

Weerawansa, Pillayan discuss alliance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 June 2008, 10:04 GMT]
Wimal Weerawansa, a pro-government politician who heads a breakaway faction of the Sinhala extreme nationalist JVP, Saturday morning held discussions with Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the leader of the paramilitary-cum-political party TMVP, who was recently installed by Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling UPFA as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, to reach a 'common understanding' and to form a 'common political front', informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet. Meanwhile, JVP sources, when contacted with the news, described the move as 'alliance of puppets.'
Full story >>

UNP dissidents withdraw their case against Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2008, 01:30 GMT]
Eleven dissident parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and have been functioning as UNP Democratic Wing in the parliament holding ministerial posts in the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Friday withdrew their petitions filed against Ranil Wickremasinghe and Tissa Attanayake, president and general secretary of the UNP from taking steps to expel them from the proper UNP, legal sources said.
Full story >>

CWC, UPF to contest Sabragamuwa PC separately

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2008, 08:30 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) Thursday officially announced that they would contest the election to the Sabragamuwa Provincial Council separately and not in the ticket of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). CWC and UPF are constituents of the UPFA. Leaders of the parties have been holding ministerial portfolios in the cabinet led by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>

Rajapakse-Weerawanse agree on establishing All Party Defense Council

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 20:05 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has agreed to set up an All Party Defense Council as suggested by the Janatha Nidahas Peramuna (JNP), a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to take precautionary steps to curb the increase of bomb explosions in the south. A decision to this effect was taken at a discussion held Monday between President Mahinda Rajapakse and the JNP delegation led by Wimal Weerawanse, presidential secretariat sources said.
Full story >>

Dinesh Gunawardene appointed government chief whip

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 20:03 GMT]
Parliamentarian Dinesh Gunawardene has been appointed as the government chief whip at a meeting held Monday and attended by leaders of constituent political parties of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), media sources said. His name was proposed by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for the post that fell vacant with the murder Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.
Full story >>

East CM wants foreign funds for rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2008, 16:16 GMT]
"We need assistance from foreign countries to provide dwellings to resettle displaced," said Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the Chief Minister of Eastern Province and the head of TMVP paramilitary. "My administration will not show any discrimination while maintaining law and order with our own police force," he said.
Full story >>

2 elected provincial councils in south dissolved

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 17:22 GMT]
Governors of North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) and Sabragamuwa Provincial (SPC) Council now being administered by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have decided to dissolve the elected administrations of these councils on the recommendation of the respective chief ministers. The dissolution would come into effect from Monday midnight, government sources said.
Full story >>

UNP, SLMC councilors boycott EPC first sitting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 00:32 GMT]
Fifteen councilors elected to the 35 member Eastern Provincial Council on the main opposition United National Party (UNP) ticket Wednesday boycotted the first sitting of the council convened on the instruction by the East Provincial Governor Mohan Wijewickrema, sources in Trincomalee said. Eighteen councilors elected on the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and sole member of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and of the Democratic National Tamil Alliance (DNTA) participated.
Full story >>

SLMC responsible for inciting violence between communities – Amir Ali

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Rauff Hakeem, the leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), and Basheer Segudawood the chairman of the party are responsible for creating a conspiracy to initiate ethnic conflict between the Tamil and Muslim communities, charged Minister of Disaster Relief Services M.S.S.Ameer Ali at a conference held May 28 at Ea’raavoor police station attended by a number of senior government officials and media personnel.
Full story >>

Parliamentarian Reggie Ranatunge passes away

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 10:05 GMT]
Reggie Ranatunge, senior parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) passed away Saturday morning at the age of 71 after a brief illness. He is the father of Arjuna Ranatunge, former captain of the Sri Lanka Cricket team that won the World Cup in 1996 and currently a parliamentarian.
Full story >>

Trincomalee put on red alert-EPC to meet on June 4

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 09:30 GMT]
Trincomalee town and its suburb have been put on red alert with the announcement of the augural session of the newly elected East Provincial Council (EPC) which is scheduled to be held on June 4 morning. Police and SLA soldiers in large numbers have been guarding all roads lead to the area surrounding the East Chief Secretariat complex where the Assembly Hall of the EPC is located along the Inner Harbour Road which leads to the Sri Lanka Naval Headquarters, sources from east port town said. The East Chief Secretariat complex was used earlier as the North East Chief Secretariat before the de-merger of two provinces.
Full story >>

Ea'raavoor tense, 9 wounded, Police imposes curfew

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Muslims in Ea'raavoor on Sunday alleged that two more Muslims were abducted as they launched a shut-down protest against the paramilitary-cum-political party, the TMVP, that had promised to release two Muslims who were abducted on Thursday, when the group attacked Muslims after a key paramilitary operative of the group was gunned down in the Muslim town of Kaaththaankudi. Ea'raavor Police has clamped down a curfew from 2:00 p.m. Sunday till 5:00 a.m. Monday. Seven passengers and two conductors were wounded when Muslim youths stoned three Sri Lanka Transport Board buses in Ea'raavoor. Residents of Tamil village Iyangkea'ni in Ea'raavoor were seen fleeing.
Full story >>

Shifts in world order alters dynamics of Sri Lanka’s conflict - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Whether Sri Lanka is or isn’t on the UN Human Rights Council is an irrelevancy as far as international dimensions of the island’s conflict are concerned, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued this week. “Rather than a ‘universal’ principle, the concept of ‘human rights’ has, in actuality, served mainly as a tool for the West-led international community to (re)order the world,” the paper said. Meanwhile, the rise of new poles in the international system is proving a challenge for the West’s post-Cold War efforts to construct a liberal order, the newspaper said in another recent editorial.
Full story >>

JVP blames Rajapakse for east crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2008, 10:35 GMT]
The government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse should be held responsible for the burgeoning rift between communities in the east after the Eastern Provincial Council election, the politburo of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said in a statement on the current situation in the east.
Full story >>

JVP to take neutral stand in East PC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2008, 07:26 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said that its newly elected councilor to the East Provincial Council would function as a neutral member without supporting the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UNP) or the United National Party-Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (UNP-SLMC) combine, party sources said in Colombo.
Full story >>

Hisbulla supporters assault senior journalist in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2008, 12:15 GMT]
Supporters of M.L.A.M. Hisbulla, the successful United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate in Eastern Provincial Council, (EPC) assaulted the senior journalist T. L. Jawferkan and another journalist at Hisbulla’s Kaaththaankudi office Monday around 1:15 p.m, seriously injuring Jawferkan who was rushed to Kaaththaankudi hospital, sources in Kaaththaankudi said.
Full story >>