Category: Politics

IMF urged Anti-Corruption Bill gets Cabinet approval (FT 15-03-2023) After years of long pursuit, the Anti-Corruption Bill ‒ a landmark piece of legislation defining measures to reduce corruption and vulnerabilities by improving fiscal transparency and public financial management was finally approved by the Cabinet of Ministers Monday to proceed with the next steps. The move is a result of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package, amidst the ongoing economic crisis. Such a Bill was long overdue and should have ideally come as a result of…

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Local Government Elections and the Government’s attempt to prevent it. (The Morning 12-03-2023) Treasury Secy.’s absence at EC meeting criticised, EC asked for fresh date Secy. Siriwardana outlines four issues regarding attending EC’s meeting EC informed by Treasury Secy. that letter on funds passed on to Minister Dolawatte raises privileges issue against SC, Speaker requested to inquire The Election Commission (EC) last week decided on 25 April as the new date to conduct the Local Government (LG) Polls, in keeping with the Supreme Court’s recent and related order following a…

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Semasinghe’s request on privilege issue raised over SC interim order on LG polls (Adaderana 10-03-2023) State Minister Shehan Semasinghe has requested the Deputy Speaker of Parliament to instruct relevant authorities not to act on the interim order issued by the Supreme Court regarding the 2023 Local Government polls until the inquiry carried out by the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges comes to an end. Furthermore, he also asked the letter sent to the Finance Minister by the Election Commission Chairman, to be referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges. The state…

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Tamil parties in the North reject HRCSL’s ‘homegrown’ recommendations The Morning (7-03-2023) TMTK’s Wiggy and TNA’s Sumanthiran say HRCSL has portrayed Northern demands inaccurately Responding to the recent recommendations made by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) that the Northern people are agreeable to an internal mechanism provided that the Truth Commission comprises members of competency and integrity, Tamil political parties in the Northern Province stated yesterday (6) that this does not fairly correspond to what the people in the North have been saying and noted that no…

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Sri Lanka remains open to discussions with UNHRC – Sri Lanka’s UN envoy Sri Lanka has once again expressed the country’s objection to resolution 51/1 adopted against the island nation by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October last year. During a recent general meeting at the 52nd session of the UNHRC, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva Himalee Arunathilaka has noted that such resolutions are unhelpful to the people of Sri Lanka and will fail to serve the objective of promoting reconciliation…

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All Opposition parties demand EC hold election by 19 March (The Morning 6-03-2023) NPP, SJB, SLFP, TNA unite in letter to Election Commission Say no need to consult Treasury Secretary after Supreme Court order All main Opposition parties – namely the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), National People’s Power (NPP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), and breakaway factions of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) – jointly wrote to the Election Commission (EC) yesterday (5), demanding that the…

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LG Polls funding: Treasury to abide by Court order ( The Morning 5- 03- 2023) Following the interim order issued by the Supreme Court on Friday (3) preventing the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance from withholding the funds allocated through the 2023 Budget for the Local Government (LG) Polls, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said the ministry would respect and act according to the decision. “We should abide by the court decision. It is our responsibility. Therefore, as the Finance Ministry, we respect the decision and will act…

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UNP fast eroding its Liberal image for power (MSM Ayub Mirror on line 4-03-2023) If the relevant authorities are to go by what President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on February 23 about holding Local Government elections that had then been scheduled by the Elections Commission to be held on March 9, those elections have been laid to rest.    The main argument in his speech was that the Local Government elections have not been legally announced on the Ground that the decision by the Elections Commission to hold the elections…

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