Category: Politics

January 24, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president suffered a major defection on Sunday when the matriarch of his party pledged support for the main opposition candidate ahead of Tuesday’s fiercely contested election. Kumaratunga’s family has strong support among SLFP activists and her endorsement is seen as a boost to Fonseka, who is backed by […]

January 24, 2010 (AFP) – War-scarred Sri Lanka holds a peace-time presidential election this week after a bitter and highly personal campaign between the architects of the crushing of an almost four-decade-long insurgency. President Mahinda Rajapakse will face his former army chief Sarath Fonseka on Tuesday in an intriguing contest between two men who were […]

January 22, 2010 (AFP) – A key opposition activist in Sri Lanka was targeted at home by a bomb early Friday, police said, despite tighter security ahead of next week’s presidential election. Ban urged all Sri Lanka parties and their supporters “to show restraint and refrain from violence, to adhere to the electoral laws and […]

Jan 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential polls will be monitored by around 40 observers representing the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA), a Taiwan based body, officials said. The Asian observers had come on an invitation extended by elections chief Dayananda Dishanayake, Pan Wel-Ta, Taiwanese election commissioner, who is heading the mission […]

UNITED NATIONS, January 20, 2010 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the growing violence in Sri Lanka, including the reported slaying of political activists, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, his spokesman said Wednesday. “The Secretary General is concerned about the growing violence in the lead-up to the presidential election in Sri […]

Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan citizen’s group has written to the two main candidates running for next weeks polls asking for more attention to the island’s minority groups and constitutional reforms to promote equality to all citizens. “We note with distress a major lacuna in both manifestos,” the group, Friday Forum said […]

January 18, 2010 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan opposition supporter was killed on Monday as fresh unrest erupted ahead of next week’s presidential election despite a security crackdown, police said. The man was killed in a clash with ruling party activists in northwestern Sri Lanka, the third politically-related death in the run-up to the vote […]

WASHINGTON, January 18, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s upcoming election is raising hopes in the United States for better relations after a chilly spell if the island turns the page on a bloody war that brought international opprobrium. The January 26 election comes months after troops killed the top leadership of the Tamil Tigers, ending […]

JAFFNA, January 17, 2010 (AFP) – Scarred by decades of war and official indifference, Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils are now being courted as political kingmakers — a shift that many of them view with bitter scepticism. With a presidential election just two weeks away, the two main candidates have been desperately wooing Tamil voters, offering […]

January 17, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president ordered police to step up security ahead of presidential elections after a second political activist was shot dead this month, an official said Sunday. The ruling party supporter was killed on Saturday in the north-western Puttalam district where several others were injured when they clashed with opposition […]

January 15, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s opposition Friday accused the government of misleading the UN over the use of heavy weapons during the final stages of fighting against Tamil rebels last year. Sri Lanka’s Tamil community, numbering 12.5 percent of the population, has close cultural and religious links with India’s Tamil Nadu state, which […]

January 16, 2010 (AFP) – The United States and Norway on Saturday denied funding Sri Lanka’s main opposition to defeat President Mahinda Rajapakse’s re-election bid later this month. Norway, which was the peace broker until the Rajapakse administration withdrew from a faltering truce and escalated a military campaign against the Tigers early last year, denied […]