A keen contest is emerging in the soon to be held election for the Presidency of the Sri Lanka Bar Association (BASL) with constitutional lawyer and UNP parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and well-known criminal lawyer Tirantha Walaliyadda announcing their candidature.
 
Both candidates have publicly announced their intention to contest with the safeguarding of the independence of the judiciary being their main slogan.

Mr. Walaliyadda launched his campaign for the presidency by making an official declaration of his intention to the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the present BASL President Shibly Aziz on Thursday.
 
He said in the present context it was urgently necessary for the Bar Association to initiate public interest litigation and move towards intervention to safeguard the independence of the judiciary against all transgressors and uphold the rule of law.
 
He said these were the objectives of the Bar Association in term of its constitution.
 
Meanwhile, Mr. Rajapakshe said he had decided to contest for the post of BASL president and his election campaign would be launched next week.

“My election campaign will mainly focus on enhancing the quality of the legal profession and safeguarding the independence of the judiciary,” Mr. Rajapakshe said.
 
He said he would campaign for the rights of people who were not aware about their legal rights. Mr. Rajapakshe who had also held important positions in the BASL, said he would focus his attention to improve infrastructure facilities of the judicial system and added that creating a qualitative judicial system in Sri Lanka was his prime goal.
 
BASL secretary Mahinda Lokuge said the elections for the post of Presidency and Secretary would be held on February 22 next year.
 
He said the nomination papers to elect office bearers for 2012-2013 would be issued from next week and nominations would be called on January 12 next year. (Lakmal Soriyagoda and T. Farook Thajudeen)