The United People's Freedom Alliance handed over their nominations for several districts today. It has already handed over their nominations for Gampaha, Hambantota, Galle, Matale, Puttalam, and Polonnaruwa districts.

General Secretary of UPFA Minister Susil Premajayantha handed in the nominations for the Colombo district this morning while UPFA nominations of the for the Kandy district were handed by group leader Sarath Amunugama and deputy leader Mahindananda Aluthgamage to the Kandy district returning officer Gotabhaya Jayaratne. (Read More)

MPs elected from his party would support the government, he said. On the election to the Vavuniya Urban Council, Siddharthan said though the PLOTE had more votes the TNA by virtue of securing bonus seats was able to control the council

He said his party’s goal was to assist the IDPs and to achieve this end the PLOTE was prepared to cooperate with any political party.

The UPFA had handed over nominations for all 22 electoral districts by yesterday, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said.

Nominations for the Parliamentary Elections set for April 8 will be concluded at 1.00 pm today.

A total of 140,88,500 voters are set to elect 196 Members of Parliament  at election and 29 are to be elected from the national list for the seventh parliament of Sri Lanka. February 27 with religious observances in Anuradhapura attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In the meantime, the UNP- led alliance handed over nominations for Galle, Puttalam and Matara districts yesterday.

Nominations for other districts would be handed over today, the party said. According to informed sources the tussle had become serious last morning with UNP’s Digamadulla Organizer Daya Gamage suggesting to field candidates separately from both parties. (Read More)

The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by retired General Sarath Fonseka yesterday stressed the need for all opposition political parties including the United National Party (UNP) to work together to get its leader released and to re-establish democracy in Sri Lanka.

“With this objective in mind the Alliance would liaise with other opposition parties though they were contesting the General Election separately,” DNA General Secretary Vijitha Herath told journalists at a ceremony where General Fonseka’s wife Anoma handed in the General’s nomination papers to the DNA at its Rajakiya Mawatha� office yesterday.

“It is the duty of all opposition political parties to come together for re-establishing democracy in Sri Lanka an to free General Fonseka who gave some breathing space to the people of this country by crushing ter rorism,” Mr. Hearth said. (Read More)

The TNA yesterday handed over its nomination papers for Jaffna, Vanni, Trincomalee and Digamadulla districts, said ex-party MP Suresh Premachandran.

He and Mavai Senathirajah are the only Jaffna district TNA members from the previous parliament (2004-2009) to be included in the Jaffna list.

Former TNA MPs Pathmini Sithamparanathan, Selvarajah Gajendran and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam have not received party nominations.

School principals Kandiah Arunthavapalan and S Sritharan and Prof Rajaratnam Sivachandran are among the new faces.

Relations between Britain and Sri Lanka are likely to hit a new low after David Miliband addresses a meeting of Tamil activists from around the world at the Houses of Parliament today.

The Foreign Secretary is due to make the opening speech at the inaugural meeting of the Global Tamil Forum, which campaigns for selfdetermination for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamils and to bring to justice perpetrators of alleged war crimes during the island’s 26-year civil war.

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, is to make the closing address to the meeting, which will be attended by several other MPs in an unprecedented display of cross-party support for Sri Lanka’s Tamils after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels last year.

“It’s great support for us,” S. J. Emmanuel, the president of the forum, told The Times. “The British Government, more than any in the world, knows our history and are most competent to understand our situation.” (Read More)

Vijayakala Maheshwaran, widow of Former UNP MP, T. Maheshwaran who was assassinated some years ago is tipped to contest the upcoming General Election from the Jaffna District on the UNP ticket.

UNP sources from Jaffna told the Daily Mirror that she may lead the party in the Jaffna District.

However, when contacted by the Daily Mirror Ms. Maheshwaran said she had not come to a final decision on entering politics yet. Ms. Maheshwaran said she would meet the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe shortly and decide on entering politics after the meeting.

UNP MP T. Maheshwaran was shot dead by an unknown gunman while praying inside 'Sivam Kovil' on January 1, 2008.

Meanwhile, UNP is also expected to field S. Sathyendran who is the party's District Organizer for Jaffna. He was also the party's mayoral candidate for Jaffna at the Northern local government poll last year.

Daily Mirror learns that the party is expected to field three Muslims in its Jaffna district list.  However, the final decision of the party is expected today, while the candidates are expected to sign the nomination papers today or tomorrow.

The constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) appear to be holding different views on the parliamentary elections in April.

The TNA which is made up of four Tamil political parties --  the Federal Party, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and the EPRLF held 22 seats in the previous parliament with all of them being elected from the Northern and Eastern Provinces. (Read More)

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to  suspend the arrest and detention of defeated presidential candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka or to order his release.

However the SC Bench comprising Justices Shirani A. Bandaranayake, Jagath Balapatabendi and K. Sripavan granted interim relief for  reasonable access to him by his immediate family members and identified lawyers in consultation with the relevant authorities.

The Court ruled that the names of the lawyers be submitted to the Attorney General.

The Attorney General said the Democratic National Alliance Secretary could meet him for the purpose of matters connected to the April general election. The next hearing was fixed for April 26.

The Attorney General told Court that the non summary inquiry under the Army Act was progressing and the course of action would be decided by the Army Commander after he received the inquiry report.

On February 12 the Supreme Court granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition challenging General Fonseka’s alleged arbitrary arrest and detention. (Read More)

The main opposition UNP yesterday criticized the JVP for not responding to its proposal to contest the general election under a common symbol in some districts while fielding candidates under the elephant symbol elsewhere.

Addressing a hurriedly summoned news conference, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP, as the single largest party in the opposition, sought views from the JVP with regard to this proposal aimed at binding the opposition parties together in the fight against the UPFA.

“We waited for a response until last Sunday. We did not hear anything from them. Nevertheless, we have still kept the option open. We have finalized nominations only to a certain extent. There is space for us to accommodate some others on board. If they are willing, they can respond within the next few days,” Mr. Attanayake said.

Asked why the UNP was not ready to compromise the elephant symbol for a common political formation for the whole country, the General Secretary   vaguely said all members of his party’s Working Committee wanted to retain the elephant symbol. (Read More)