We have stressed repeatedly that the February 10 local council election results were largely a shattering protest vote against the National Government for what most of the people see as its failure or slowness to fulfil most of its....

The just ended local council elections remind students of politics of an age-old adage: Politics is a continuous and ruthless struggle for power. Those who understand this often grab political power and stay on in power. Even if they lose, they....

In an interview with Daily Mirror, Public Administration Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara spoke about the future of the government and the United National Party...

Whenever I failed to secure the grade or mark I wanted at school, at a term or a monthly test, I used to brood over it for a long, long time, often for hours, sometimes for days. I would first console myself with the fact that there....

Bitterness between the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that raged in the run up to the local authorities’ elections has now taken a turn for the worse in the aftermath of the shocking electoral defeat at las

Mahinda Rajapaksa, after losing the presidential election, making his now infamous from-the-window speech blamed it ‘on the Tamils’. It was a crass, knee-jerk conclusion which was racist and a complete disavowal of his own and significa

While the country awaits the decision of the high-level special committee appointed on Tuesday, to determine the future course of the national unity or consensus government, responsible citizens should also focus attention on the creation of a just

The citizens of this beautiful Island are past masters in going round in circles; when it comes to governing themselves they display their prowess in this art in no uncertain terms. For example when they voted Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Today we move from the Bond Scam to the Prison Scam. Let’s first ask why they were permitted to walk when so many others were put behind bars. The TV says both Arjun Aloysius and Palisena were remanded and given mats to sleep on.

We are living in a new country. We just need the Government to catch up with that fact. Mahinda Rajapaksa led a political formation that has emerged as the largest single party in the country, comfortably displacing the UNP.

There is a feeling among a section of the public that the law’s delays were one of the reasons for widespread public disapproval, disappointments and even anger which led to a massive protest vote against the government at the February 10 ele

The outcome of last Saturday’s local government elections has naturally prompted the ruling United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to look back and ponder about what went wrong. Already President Maithripala Sirisena

The battle for power in the Maldives between the incumbent government led by President Abdulla Yameen and the opposition led by a galaxy of leaders headed by former Presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed, is now being fought overseas, wi

As campaign rhetoric reached fever-pitch last week in the run-up to the LG elections on Saturday (10), the government stumbled on an unexpected news-nugget to feed its propaganda mill. 

The local government election results are a ‘brutal’ eye-opener for the unity government. The need to perform a deep diagnostic of the two major political parties, their structures and relationships with the electorate, whether in Colombo

It was a spectacularly crushing defeat. Mind boggling as it might have felt at the beginning, now in retrospect, the genesis of this debacle is all too clear. This government, which assumed with a public mandate to govern, simply failed to ‘gov

The people have spoken, as they say. Local Government Elections, like any election, are a test of the regime’s popularity. Well, the people have delivered their verdict: Not up to mark...

Driving on the streets of Colombo a day before Sri Lanka celebrated its 70th Independence Day, I noticed wayside vendors attempting to sell national flags to passers-by. These sellers used a noval...

All those that bought crackers, can burst them justifiably, but it will not sound musical to the ears’ of any of the leaders,’ as the message is clear none will be elected through an election as President or...

We celebrated 70 years (not 30, by the way!) of Independence last week with the  attendant  pomp and pageantry ;  Yet it matters little whether it is 70 or 30 years since independence  as....

Sri Lanka, a country strategically positioned in the Indian Ocean, is well in the spheres of attention of the world powers. China, on the one hand, has linked up with Sri Lanka for Strategic Partnership Cooperation.

In today’s crucial and countrywide elections to 341 local councils, a significant feature will be the 25% representation for women for the first time since Sri Lanka achieved universal adult franchise more than 80 years ago. While acknowledging

We are soon going to have a clash between President Donald Trump and international law. This is predictable when one examines the presidential discourse over what to do about North Korea and its possession of nuclear-tipped rockets. He has threatened

As Sri Lanka, conducts its biggest ever local council elections today, we need to reflect on the fact that poverty, unemployment, youth disillusionment, social and institutional degradation and disintegration, and environmental despoliation continues

The rapidity of the turn of events in Tamil Nadu, the southern State of India during the past one year, after the death of Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the powerful Chief Minister of State, is amazing and also interesting.

Freedom: What a great idea it is! As we celebrated this Sunday Sri Lanka’s 70th freedom day, it is relevant to ask how free we are and what freedom meant to us then and today. 

Tomorrow Saturday, February 10, 15.8 million people have been called to vote at the long-delayed Local Government Elections to establish 341 councils.   

Whatever the results of the Local Council election tomorrow, one important factor is clear. The sovereign people, most of them now well informed largely because of high technology -- will no longer tolerate corrupt politicians.   

Politics, elections and the media are necessarily entwined in any democracy. This intertwine has witnessed new dimensions altogether with persons who would otherwise have not got through more than a few words earlier, now having the luxury of takin

Sri Lanka has ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption. However, in 2016, Sri Lanka ranked 95 in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), dropped down the rank by 12 slots when compared to 2015, a report released by Transparency Inte