The continuous delay in conducting Local Government and Provincial Councils polls after the expiry of their terms of office has created quite a controversy and made political parties, the public and the election monitoring NGOs impatient. 

Notwithstanding his political affiliations, former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva’s fundamental rights petition challenging the enactment of the Provincial Councils Elections Amendment Act would no doubt be a landmark case.

The Constitution is the supreme law; or that is what we generally believe. And the Constitution says that all persons are equal before the law. In fact the whole edifice of a constitutionally governed democracy hinges on the rule of law which deriv

In the wake of the enactment of the new Act postponing Provincial Council Elections, former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris of the Joint Opposition spoke about its implications. Following are excerpts of the interview.  

The Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella, in an interview with the , said that amendments were incorporated into the Provincial Councils Elections act in keeping with the Standing Orders after consulting the Attorney General. Kiriella, who is also t

Last week’s extremist monks-led mob attack on a safe house for Rohingya refugees in Mount Lavinia marked a dangerous new low in Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka. Some government ministers had the guts to condemn it. Finance Minister Mangala 

  The alarming 42% drop in rice production in the past six months compared to that of last year, the death of nearly two hundred thousand coconut trees and the failure of a slew of other crops during the same season, have put country’s foo

Facts underlying the mass grave of 45 Hindus found in the township of Fakirabazar in Maungdaw in the troubled Rakhine State of Myanmar late last month, are shrouded mystery. Were the killers Rohingya Muslim militants, as alleged by the Myanmar 

As an ordinary, reasonable citizen of this country with an average education thanks to the free education of Sri Lanka, I am really concerned about the short article published in “Daily Mirror” of  September 2, 2017, especially becau

On September 28, Harbhajan Singh, the former Indian off break bowler insulted the Sri Lanka national side and the current Australian....

The system of rules that govern our country - our laws - are there to protect us all, as individuals, families and communities. The Supreme Law....

It takes a lot of courage to live in despair. Emotional despair gets even worse, when a loved one is dead or not to be found. Speaking about....

The Sri Lankan establishment is full of stories about the economic success of India. There has also been a push....

Foreign policy of a country is a set of rules that seems to outline the behaviour of a particular country and how it interacts/reacts with....

Out of the blues, the war in Vietnam is in the news again. By the way it is not the fiftieth anniversary of America’s defeat in Vietnam when North Vietnam caused it to flee. It’s only the forty second.  

World religious leaders have told us that anyone who causes damage to a child’s life should be thrown into the deepest ocean with a millstone tied around the neck -- symbolically showing the seriousness of the crime committed and the severity o

Whatever the Joint Opposition or extremist critics may say President Maithripala Sirisena from January 8, 2015 has lead Sri Lanka to a new chapter in its history with the two major parties working together in a National Government mainly to bring abo

In what could be a trigger for another major conflict in West Asia, Kurds in Iraq on Monday voted overwhelmingly for separation. More than 92 percent of the people – Kurds and non-Kurds in the autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq – voted y

The description of the nature of the Sri Lankan State that had been proposed in the interim report of the Steering Committee set up under the Constitutional Assembly is interesting. 

The first Minister of Education in this country to announce curriculum reforms on facebook is Akila Viraj Kariyawasam of this Yahapalana Government. 

Eastern Province Governor Rohitha Bogollagama, in an interview with the Dailymirror , speaks about his post under the current circumstances.The Provincial Council will come fully under his control from today onwards in terms of the new

There is a tradition in the field of politics in Sri Lanka that the political leaders will become rulers. But, this is the first time that a businessman is going to contest the forthcoming Presidential Elections in 2020 thereby breaking that age-ol

With Reference to the column under the headline ‘Irony of SLFP Members Pulling out of government over corruption’ by Ranga Jayasuriya which appeared in Daily Mirror  on page 10 of September 12, 2017; Science, Technology and Re

When the Supreme Court determined that approval of people by referendum is needed to enact the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the Joint Opposition believed that the govt would have no excuse to postpone the elections to three Provincial Counci

Interestingly the Constitutional Assembly Steering Committee’s interim report, presented to Parliament by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on September 21, was largely a document containing ethnically sensitive issues. In the light of the

It is no secret that among the least respect people in Sri Lanka are politicians and police officers. Other state employees, barring perhaps the security forces, are not respected much either. 

“...that morning, I went to Rosmead Place. The Prime Minister was talking to another monk. I occupied a seat at the end of the verandah, and then he came up to me and inquired why I had come ...I shot at the Prime Minister once. That shot str

Is the resolution 30/1 legal? Certainly not. Let me briefly explain as to why the resolution is illegal. On 26 th March 2014, the UNHRC by resolution A/HRC/25/1 requested the High Commissioner to undertake a comprehensive investigation into “

The separation occurred soon after the cessation of the war. In the immediate aftermath of the end of the war, the Rajapaksas had nothing short of praise and flattery for General Sarath Fonseka, the man who led his forces to a victorious end of the

Among the merry pack at Temple Trees in the final days of the Rajapaksa regime, on whom would you place an honest gentleman’s tag! Say Lalith Weeratunga, a worthy recipient.