පොදු අපේක්ෂක මෛත්රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විශේෂ සජීවී පුවත් සාකච්චාවක් පවත්වමින් සිටී. එහිදී ඒ මහතා මෙසේ කීය. රට බෙදීමට අපි කිසිසේත් ඉඩ දෙන්නේ නෑ. ඊළමට හිස ඔසවන්න දෙන්නේ නෑ. අපි කිසිම සංවිධානයක් සමග රට බෙදීමට රහස්ය හෝ විවෘත කිසිදු
ඉදිරි දින දෙක තුළදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ප්රධාන පෙළේ ඇමැතිවරයකු විපක්ෂයට -hgw-new-dgs.jpg)
දැනට පෙනෙන හැටියට මෙවර ජනපතිවරණයේ ඇත්තේ ගලඋඩ සටනකි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මෙන්ම මෛත්රීපාලගේ මැතිවරණ ව්යාපාරය ඇත්තේ කරට කරය. ඒ අතරේ පැතිර යන කතාවක් වන්නේ මොනවා හෝ කරලා දිනනවා, කොහොම හරි දිනනවා කියන කතාවය. ඡන්ද ජිල්මාට් සිදුවෙතැයි කියන සැකයක්ද ජනතාව අතර පැතිරෙමින් පවතී. මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් මහින්ද දේශප්රිය මීට කදිම පිළිතුරක් පසුගියදාක දුන්නේය.
Monday, 05 January 2015 09:28
UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera told a media briefing that dissolving Parliament on the day of the election or before would be suicidal as the government would lose its power in Parliament as well, in the event it was defeated at the Presidential Election losing the executive power.
He said his party had asked its grassroots level members to contain themselves in the event the common candidate emerged victorious at the election and not to harm the opponents.
Coming up with several allegations he said there were moves to search the UNP Headquarters, Sirikotha and his own residence by the CID, which is said to be looking for a book with a family tree.
Meanwhile, Mr. Samaraweera said no one could find fault with former President Chandrika Kumaratunga for referring to the late LTTE leader as ‘Mr. Prabakaran’ as the current president himself had referred to the LTTE leader the same way in 2005.
“However, we are not asking the people to respect Prabahakaran,” he added.(Yohan Perera and Darshana Sanjeewa)
-http://www.dailymirror.lk/60357/mangala-assures-security-urges-smooth-transition
Monday, 05 January 2015 09:25
International observers said Sunday they had received complaints of voter intimidation before this week’s Sri Lankan presidential election, in which the incumbent faces a tough battle to win an unprecedented third term.
The 55-member panel of monitors told reporters they had already received complaints that the military had set up 400 roadblocks to discourage minority Tamils from voting freely in former war zones.
“According to the opposition these roadblocks are to keep away the voters... (but) we are told (by the authorities) that the military has no role to play in these election,” said the monitoring team leader S. Y. Quraishi. “We are yet to see that.”
He said international observers would Monday begin fanning out to the 22 electoral districts across the island to check out the final rallies.
They will also be present at polling booths on Thursday during a nine-hour period when some 15 million people are eligible to vote.
“The police have assured us that they will guarantee that the election is free and fair,” Mr Quraishi said. “At the moment, we have to take their word.”
The monitors have been invited by Sri Lanka’s election chief Mahinda Deshapriya, who told them he was confident of conducting a fair election.
Even as they arrived in the island, gunmen opened fire at a meeting of the main Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday night and wounded one person.
On Friday at least 20 supporters of Mr Sirisena were wounded when stones and rocks were thrown as he addressed crowds at Pelmadulla outside the capital.
Private local election monitors have said they received nearly 1,100 complaints since campaigning got underway in early December.
The police said they had received a much smaller number of complaints, but that 130 arrests had been made. The private monitors, the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections, said the increasing violence was well organised and targeted the Opposition, which is mounting a serious challenge against two-term incumbent Mr Rajapaksa. (AFP)
http://www.nation.lk/edition/component/k2/item/36958-monitors-fear-voters-being-intimidated.html
