The game plan of the Rajapaksa regime is on track. The plan was not only simple but eminently possible. A presidential election as soon as the four years were over, followed immediately by a general election.
With the main opposition all but out of contention and a weak, unacceptable and discredited Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe facing certain [...]
One of the first appointments made by Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after winning the presidential election in 2005 was that of Defence Secretary. His younger brother Gotabaya, an American citizen who had taken leave from his job to help in his brothers’ election campaign, was asked to take over the Defence Ministry immediately.
Gotabaya started by removing [...]
Even as we gear ourselves for yet another election exactly a month from today, it is indeed pertinent to reflect on the choices before us.
Seemingly the electorate is confronted with unprecedented choice – 837 candidates standing for election in Colombo District for all but 19 slots. However, despite ballot papers that will stretch to over [...]
Since 1971, Sri Lanka has been under emergency rule more often than not. From the first armed insurrection by the JVP in 1971 people of this country have seen death and destruction on a massive scale. Today for the first time in the last 30 years there is real hope that the country can look [...]
When a regime incarcerates its rivals, however painstakingly it seeks to justify this act, its fear of losing power has finally and conclusively triumphed over any vestige of values that it once possessed. This fear is contagious, all-consuming, cancerous, and leads to greater and greater excesses. The people can recognise its stench. The cycle is [...]
The current leadership of this country is suffering from an acute attack of PARANOIA. How else to explain the continuing harassment of journalists, re-introducing draconian laws against the media, bringing the army onto the streets to police civilians and the ultimate of all — arresting the former army commander (marketed by this government as a [...]
In a democracy, a thumping majority is expected to result in cool heads among the victors and cold feet among losers. The recent presidential election in Sri Lanka has had the opposite effect with the winners going for the jugulars of the losers and the losers preparing for rearguard action. General Sarath Fonseka is alleged [...]
The results of the presidential election were certainly not a forgone conclusion before polling day. The ruling alliance was not expected to win as comfortably as it did. But win they did with a spectacular margin.
That being said, what has transpired in this country ever since the Executive Presidency was introduced into our system of [...]
An exasperated Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake declared at his weekly conference held two weeks ago that he was cancelling such future meetings because it was ‘a waste of time.’ It was difficult for him to hold a free and fair election because public service officers and the police were not carrying out his orders. State [...]
Something unfortunate has happened to Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s campaign. No, it’s not his somewhat unrealistic manifesto, or the fact that Ranil Wickremesinghe has started to turn up at rallies in an ill-fitting national costume (unfortunate as these may be).
In spite of these minor shortcomings, Fonseka’s campaign has actually been picking up steam, and victory for [...]
