Vows to launch leaflet and petition campaigns and hold public rallies in Kalutara, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Kandy and Colombo

As his party prepared for a countrywide campaign next week, National Freedom Front leader and Minister Wimal Weerawansa said he has appealed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to repeal land and police powers for Provincial Councils enshrined in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

The election monitoring organization, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has found fault with the Opposition for not mediating in people’s problems.

Executive Director of CaFFE Keerthi Tennakoon, addressing a workshop titled ‘Let’s build civil society solidarity’, held at Kithulkanda Mountain Resort, last Sunday, said that an extremely weak opposition could mediate in people’s problems. As the opposition failed to form a people’s protest against the increased electricity bill, now the electricity bill protest movement was centrally focused by the trade unions and civil society organisations.

Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya today said that he has still not been informed officially regarding the Northern Provincial Council election, which President Rajapaksa has assured will take place in September this year.

 Elections cannot be held as I please, they can only be held according to a constitutional, executive or court directive, he said during a press briefing at the Election Secretariat in Colombo, regarding the Voters’ Day which falls on June 01.

The election for the Northern Provincial Council (the first of its kind) is scheduled for September of this year.  As the President ‘confessed’, the date will be selected by his astrologer – this to my mind is a shameful confession because it indicates that the President depends on the advice of soothsayers, magicians and other charlatans to make decisions pertaining to the governance of this country.  Be that as it may, the announcement of elections to this Provincial Council has evoked a flurry of protests from several nationalist organisations including two parties that are constituents of the government, namely the JHU and the NFF, objecting to the holding of these elections.

 The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a constituent of the UPFA government yesterday announced its support for the May 21 token strike organised by the Co–ordination Committee of the Trade Union Alliance (CCTUA) against the recent electricity tariff hike.

SLMC leader and Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem yesterday pledged his party’s support to the strike when he met the CCTUA members at SLMC headquarters ‘Dharussalam’.

 The Federation of University Teachers (FUTA) will not take part in the strike the Co–ordination Committee of the Trade Union Alliance (CCTUA) will hold on May 21 against the electricity tariff increases, The Island learns. It has, however, pledged solidarity with CCTUA.

FUTA sources said yesterday that university teachers were not in a position take part in the planned trade union action because of their 100–day–long strike last year over several demands.

UNP MP Sajith Premadasa stated that becoming the leader of the party is not a decision he can make by himself and that it has to be made by the United National Party, party assembly, Working Committee and parliamentary group.

Right now they have all reached a certain decisions and therefore under the existing situation my main target is to bring victory for the party and to serve the people of the country, he said.

Taking part in his first ever live TV political discussion last night on Derana 360, the former UNP deputy leader stated that whether or not he rises to the leadership of the party is a decision that rests in the hands of the assembly and party members and can only be obtained through the opportunity they provide.

UNP Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa rapped Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa for attempting to block the holding of Northern Provincial Council elections.

Premadasa, addressing a meeting during his Sasunata Aruna Programme, held at the Sri Sumanarama Maha Vihara in Ethugala, Kandawala, Katana yesterday said that now Minister Weerawansa was propagating an idea that the holding of northern provincial elections would have a detrimental impact upon Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence.

India may reconsider it’s position on the Kachchativu island which is currently under Sri Lanka.

Union Minister V. Narayanaswamy told reporters in Chennai that the decision was taken following the position adopted by the Tamil Nadu government led by J. Jayalalithaa and the opposition DMK led by M. Karunanidhi.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly had recently passed a resolution calling on the Indian government to reclaim Kachchativu from Sri Lanka.

Minister Mervyn Silva today (14) appeared before the Anuradhapura Magistrate court with regard to a court case on a bombing attack on a UNP rally in 1999.
The UNP rally was held in Eppawala during the 1999 Presidential poll campaigning period under the auspices of party leader - Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The bomb attack killed three and Minister Silva, who was then a UNP member, was a speaker at the rally.