‘Mixed electoral system promotes less corruption’ :Duminda Attygalle United National Party

Duminda Attygalle, a proud old boy and former rugby captain of Royal College Colombo, is another candidate contesting for the Colombo Municipal Council from the Cinnamon Gardens Ward under the UNP ticket. Currently pursuing his Masters in Business Administration at the British School of Commerce in Colombo affiliated to 

Your choice: Get drunk or be sober in this Kakistocrazy

There’s a word in Sinhala that is widely used for which there is no English equivalent. ‘Pevunaa’ is a word used by those who drink, mostly. Those who almost drowned also use the word to indicate that a certain amount of water was swallowed, clearly without intention to do so.   

JVP mayoral candidate for Colombo Municipal Council Dr. Ranil Jayasena ‘Improving quality of people’

With the Local Government Elections looming around the corner, the need to elect the right candidate to power is quintessential

The mess and muddle in school admissions

? Another provincial politician has been accused of making a teacher kneel at his feet and apologize, but unlike the first incident, the politician has this time been compelled to resign from one of his portfolios.

Extraordinary Enticement of Executive Office

Now that the Supreme Court has made a determination on the referral by President Maithripala Sirisena as to whether his term of office is five years or six years, any ‘confusion’ that may have arisen in his mind must have been removed.

Electing a professional as Colombo mayor ideal - SLPP candidate Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam

Former Chief Medical Officer of Colombo Municipal Council Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam is contesting the local government elections as mayoral candidate to the Colombo Municipal Council under the ‘Flower Bud’ symbol of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna [SLPP]. He says it is better to have a professional as a mayor of Colombo.  

Sujeewa Senasinghe and Marikkar Just shut up!

Engaging in vituperative brinksmanship, at best, is amateurish. At worst, it is outright self-destructive and defeats the very purpose of your existence.

Statement issued by Women Action Network (WAN) on attacks on women candidates Women at war Violence

A woman candidate who was involved in election campaign activities in the Wellawaya area of Moneragala District has been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition after she was brutally attacked.

Here comes Padmavat, the love of premiers and anathema to others

Thursday January 25 is surely a much awaited day for the United National Party.   

Primordial identities subvert constitutional rights in young democracies

Assertion of caste, regional, ethnic, religious and national identities are characteristic of new democracies, as groups previously lacking consciousness wake up to their identity and seek a place in the sun. The opening up of the power structure by the establishment of democratic institutions and the institution of elections helps mobilize there entities which had been inchoate and dormant.  

The books that we read, the books that read us

My friend Dhanuka Bandara, currently studying in the United States, sent me a comment the other day: “The decline of a reading culture is a serious problem, rather acute in America. I have even concluded that this has caused the current crisis in Western civilisation.” I was and still am not qualified to argue on the latter point, but I agreed wholeheartedly with his first point. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, after all, to

NJO objects favours granted to alcohol industry

The National Joint Committee strongly objects to the Fnance Minister’s decision in reducing the price of beer by introduction of new taxation scheme for this alcoholic beverage. This decision has already increased the beer consumption especially among the youth of our nation within the past one month. 

After War Ends: A Road to national reconciliation

The three decade-long armed conflict in Sri Lanka had ended with the defeat of LTTE in May 2009. Many initiatives taken by the post-war Sri Lankan governments have not yielded any national reconciliation, in fact the divergent interests among various social, economic and political groups and increased social fragmentation have terrified the social cohesion and the 

Local administration experiences bitterest period under current rule: Basil

In an interview with Dailymirror , former Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa who spearheads Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) spoke about the current status of politics and the local government elections. Excerpts

UNP willing to continue with Unity Govt.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, in an interview with the , said that the United National Party (UNP) doesn’t stand for corruption. He said that the party will penalize those responsible for the Central Bank bond transaction. Following are excerpts of the interview done with minister Kariyawasam.

Yahapalanaya dogged by tit-for-tat mudslinging

Elections in this country are acrimonious. And it does not take an astrologer to predict that the unity government would never be the same if the current trend of mutual recrimination continues. As if recent verbal barbs directed against each other by the lower-rungs of the two main constituent parties of the government are not good enough, President Maithripala Sirisena himself has joined the fray. 

We can’t depend on men every single day Ruwanthi

Actress Ruwanthi Mangala who has thrown her hat into the ring with regard to the forthcoming Local Government Elections, spoke about her political ambitions and other important matters in an interview with the Daily Mirror. Mangala is contesting for the Kaduwela Electorate under the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) ticket.  

Women have other rights to fight for than liquor Gayesha perera

The Local Government polls have opened new doors for newcomers to test the waters in politics. Gayesha Perera, former Miss Sri Lanka and actress, who once contested the Provincial Council Elections in 2014, is once again contesting as a candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) from the Dehiwala-East Kawdana Ward this February. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Gayesha shared how she is preparing for the elections;

Korea, between the devil and the deep sea

The Korean people are probably one of the most unfortunate people on earth. Today the US -a country half a world away from the Korean....

Counting in LGBT

A news article published a few weeks ago, ran a headline stating that the “Gay population in Sri Lanka now tops 7,500,” maintaining there were only 7,500 Gay....

Priests, doctors and the State: The agony of the masses

Media headlines in recent months in Sri Lanka have concentrated heavily on the political role of Buddhist monks, agitations of government medical officers....

Prelude to nuke winter?

France and Germany are celebrating the 55th Anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, though not much discussed currently, this treaty was a symbol of....

The poor woman who put Hissene Habre in jail

Hissene Habre, the brutal former dictator of Chad, became the first Head of State to be convicted of rape, and that was based on the testimony of Khadidja Zidane, a poor, illiterate woman who feared Habre even after he fled the country 25 years ago.  

Democracy on the run?

Is democracy in decline? If you talk about the quality of democracy the answer is clearly yes. The US, the world’s first and most important democracy- although at the beginning a limited democracy for white men only- is in trouble. President Donald Trump has brought old problems to the surface- 

Rest guilty of dereliction

Out of 225 MPs that included the nine rejects and dozens of Ministers, only six were present for the scheduled seven-hour session of the Constituent Assembly that met three weeks ago under the auspicious of its Chairman, to debate the long awaited proposals of the Interim Committee.  

‘Fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’; danger to democracy

As United States President Donald Trump today completes his first year in office -- which many analysts describe as a reign of dangerous chaos and unpredictability -- a senior Senator of his own Republican Party last Wednesday made a historic speech which many compared to the famous, “I have a dream” oration of Martin Luther King Junior.  

Presidency – Parliament and political garbage

The Bond Commission (PCoI) Report that led to many political frictions is now out in the public domain in the English language only.

Overloaded ass, prosecute the plunderers

Even in the basically democratic world, it is widely admitted that the law is an ass, it later became a rich person’s ass and now it is an overloaded ass.   

Open more avenues in education for school leavers Can we be more practical with the university syste

The results of the GCE A/L exams have brought successes and victories to hard working students, especially to those from the outstations and rural areas.

‘PM’s resilience to criticism is an example to all’

Highways and Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella in an interview with the Daily Mirror spoke about the present status in politics in the wake of the action taken by President Maithripala Sirisena regarding the bond scam.