ITAK wins 12 local body elections in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2011, 12:22 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), contesting under the symbol of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), captured the administration of twelve local authorities including two Urban Councils (UC) and Predesiya Sabas (PS) in the North and East in the elections held Thursday. The TNA failed to capture power of the Moothoor PS in Trincomalee district but was able secure three seats out of 11. Elections to local bodies in Jaffna district and to some in the districts of Trincomalee, Ampaarai and Mullaithivu were not held Thursday.
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UPFA lead candidate attacked in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 11:40 GMT]
Ali Zahir Mowlana, former parliamentarian of the Batticaloa district and currently the lead candidate of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance contesting the Ea'raavoor Urban Council that is scheduled to held on Thursday, was critically injured in an attack that took place Wednesday afternoon at Ea'raavoor, sources in the East said.
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Lead candidate's house attacked in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 00:50 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons Monday early morning lobbed grenades at the house of A.L.Thavam, lead candidate of the National Congress Party (NCP) contesting the forthcoming election to the Akkaraippattu Municipal Council, sources in the East said. Thavam was unhurt but his brother-in-law, A.H. Rathees, sustained injuries . The house sustained extensive damages, according to a complaint lodged with the Akkaraippattu Police.
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Trinco under heavy security for Rajapakse election visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2011, 14:45 GMT]
Trincomalee town has been put on red alert from Friday for the forthcoming visit of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse who is scheduled to address an election rally on Sunday morning in the Trincomalee McHeyzer Stadium in support of the ruling United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) contesting the Trincomalee urban Council. Roads leading to the McHeyzer Stadium are under heavy checking by army and police personnel. Vehicles and other mode of transports are stopped and checked by security personnel, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Two die in election related violence in south

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2011, 23:23 GMT]
Two persons said to be supporters of the ruling United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) were shot dead and four others were seriously injured Friday in Galle, down south of the country when two groups of the ruling party clashed for preferential votes in the forthcoming local election for Rathgama Predesiya Saba.
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Colombo to postpone local elections in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 February 2011, 03:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has decided to postpone elections to 75 local authorities that were scheduled for March 17 until the Court of Appeal decides on the 60 writ applications, many filed by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) against the rejection of its nomination lists in the districts of Jaffna, Killinochchi and Mullaithivu. The Court of Appeal last week put off the inquiry and order on the Writ Applications filed by the ruling UPFA challenging the rejection of nomination lists submitted for three Urban Councils and sixteen Predesiya Sabas in the Northern Province for February 28.
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UNP leaders conduct election campaign in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 February 2011, 12:08 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said by defeating the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the forthcoming local election Tamil people could teach a good lesson to the government in power. UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya said so in responding to a question why his party has been contesting in the local elections in the districts of Jaffna and Vanni, at a media briefing held Thursday in Kaarainagar in Jaffna district.
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Local elections likely to be postponed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2011, 23:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan Department of Elections has said it was considering requests made by political parties to postpone the local elections until hundreds of thousands of families displaced due to recent floods are resettled and resume their day to day normal life in their villages and towns.
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Muslim journalist attacked for exposing corruption

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2011, 04:31 GMT]
An unidentified group of assailants attacked the Chief Editor of the weekly Batticaloa newspaper ‘Vaara Uraikal’ with iron rods after throwing chilli powder on the editor's face on Monday evening in Kaaththaankudi, sources in Batticaloa said. Puvi Rahumathulla, was admitted in the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital for treatment. Media sources alleged that the attack had been carried out by an armed gang at the instigation of M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, a deputy minister the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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SLFP sidelines SLMC, EPDP in Mannaar local elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2011, 23:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the EPDP, constituents of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been completely rejected from the lists of candidates fielded in the local elections in the Mannaar district. The SLMC led by SL Minister Rauff Hakeem was forced to file separate nominations to contest the Piratheasa Chapais (PS) of Maanthai West, Musali and Mannaar, as SL minister Rishad Bathiudeen selected candidates from Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLFP, against the assurances the UPFA had given to SLMC and the EPDP, sources in Mannaar said.
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UPFA nominations for local elections rejected in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2011, 11:42 GMT]
In a sudden turn of development in the run up to the local elections in North, the election department officials in Jaffna and Ki'linochchi have rejected the nominations filed by the UPFA, disqualifying the ruling UPFA and EPDP alliance from participating in the elections in Jaffna and Ki'linochchi that come under the Jaffna electoral district. The nominations were filed under a wrong name in Tamil as Aiykkiya Makka'l Chuthanthira Kooddamaippu (AMCK) instead of Aiykkiya Makka'l Chunthanthira Munna'ni (AMCM). The date for the elections has been set to March 17.
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Forced recruitment of traders by Colombo to contest elections in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2011, 22:29 GMT]
Colombo’s terror campaign and abductions in Jaffna and Vanni now aim at forced recruitment of traders to contest local bodies elections under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s SLFP ticket, sources in Jaffna said. In recent days, many leaders of traders associations in Jaffna were abducted by SL Army officers coming to their houses and were taken to Colombo. They were not told why were they abducted and where were they being taken. They were later released in Colombo after forcefully getting signatures from them to contest elections in Jaffna and Vanni, under the SLFP. The traders said they didn’t want to contest but were afraid of their lives. Meanwhile, R. Ankajan, SLFP coordinator in Jaffna, is ‘recruiting’ university students to campaign in the elections.
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Colombo extends emergency without debate

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2011, 18:25 GMT]
The SL parliament Friday evening adopted the motion to extend the state of emergency for another month by a majority of 118 votes without a debate. This was the first time in the history of Sri Lanka parliament the state of emergency was extended without a debate. The debate on the motion is to be held on February 8, according to a decision taken at the leaders of political parties represented in SL parliament.
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TNA to contest local elections, TPPF politically divided

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 05:14 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has decided to contest all the local government institutions in the North and Eastern provinces in the forthcoming election. Some of the political parties affiliated to the recently formed Tamil Political Parties Forum (TPPF) have reportedly expressed their willingness to contest the forthcoming local election under the TNA banner, informed sources said. The official TNA stand is to contest alone. Meanwhile, the TNA is increasingly under pressure to put forward a document on political solution as absolute ‘minimum’ from both New Delhi and Colombo establishments, informed sources said.
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Colombo extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2011, 16:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s parliament Wednesday evening adopted, as usual, a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of one hundred and eleven votes. One hundred and thirty four members of the ruling United Peoples National Alliance (UPFA) and its constituents voted for the motion.
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46 local council members to be chosen in Mannar elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 03:02 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to contest all the five local authorities in the Mannaar electoral district in the forthcoming election, according to Vanni district TNA parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan. Elections to local authorities are to be held after a lapse of thirty five years in the district to elect 46 members to an Urban Council and the four Pradeshya Sabas in the district.
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CaFFE against holding local elections under PR system

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 13:17 GMT]
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has requested all political parties, including the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to pass the Local Authorities Elections Amendment Bill and hold the coming elections using First Past the Post system. The Local Authorities Elections Amendment Bill is to be presented in parliament when it is scheduled to meet on Tuesday (January 4). However the Sri Lanka government is reported to have decided not to pass the amendment bill till the forthcoming local authorities’ elections that is scheduled to be held in March, is over.
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Jumbo cabinet expands with eight additional deputy ministers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2010, 22:10 GMT]
Eight more parliamentarians from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are expected to be sworn in as deputy ministers on January 6th by the Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, according to political sources in Colombo. Six of the new appointees have crossed over from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and two are from the ruling party.
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Split in Wimal Weerawanse led NFF

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2010, 10:51 GMT]
The National Freedom Front (NFF) a splinter group from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has reportedly expelled its national list parliamentarian Achala Jagoda from the party. The party secretary Prianjit Vitarana had refused to comment on the expulsion, but had told Colombo media that his party would not tolerate anyone who has been working against the party. His party is aligned with Mahinda Rajapaksa and is deployed by Rajapaksa brothers to showcase Sinahala extremist policies as a pressure tactic to the West, NGOs and the UN.
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UNP claims 20 UPFA parliamentarians to leave government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 20:56 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in south Wednesday claimed about twenty government parliamentarians were holding discussion with its leadership to leave the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). UNP Badulla district parliamentarian Harin Fernando told a media briefing that the disgruntled UPFA parliamentarians, including some senior ministers, were ready to join the UNP under its new leadership.
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