News vom 07.11.2005

[srilanka1998]

No polling in unclear areas - Commissioner

Polling will not be conducted in rebel held areas for the forthcoming presidential elections, says the Elections Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake.
The Commissioner Dissanayake informed this decision to the supreme court through the attorney general on Thursday, the 27th and said that alternate arrangements have been made for the people in rebel held areas to vote.

Two presidential candidates in a petition asked the Supreme Court to issue an injunction order requesting the Election Commissioner not to hold polls in the rebel held areas in the north and east.

The petitioners said that there were large scale rigging in the 2004 general elections in those areas.

The supreme court agreed with the petitioners about their concerns and said that European Union and the election monitoring body, PAFERAL have complained to the courts of such rigging of votes.

Arrangements will be made for people in rebel held areas to come and vote in polling stations in government controlled areas Election Commissioner, Dissanayake said.

He said polling booths would be set up about 500 meters away from the unclear areas and transport be provided to the voters to come to government held areas and vote.

Supreme Court said that it was satified with the proposed arrangemnets. Court asked the commissioner to summon the presidential candidates and
brief them about the arrangements.

 

[srilanka1998]

Karuna Defection - Wickremasinghe's Ploy - UNP Stalwart
[ TamilNet ] [ 12:15 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

A United National Party (UNP) stalwart, Mr. Naveen Dissanayake, has said that it would not be necessary for Sri Lanka's Military to fight the Tigers. "American and Indian forces will fight the LTTE if Liberation Tigers' leader Pirapaharan opts to wage a war," Naveen Dissanayake told the audience at an Election propaganda meeting, Thursday, at Ginigathena in the upcountry district of Nuwara Eliya, a Tamil daily, Uthayan, quoted in its headline story, Monday. Mr. Dissanayake has also claimed that a situation was created to make the renegade LTTE commander Karuna to get dissatisfied with his leadership during the period covering his trips to Europe, the paper said. According to the paper report, Dissanayake has claimed that Karuna had the full backing of Wickremasinghe before he set out on his diversion. "This is why Mr. Pirapaharan was unable to wage another war," the UNP stalwart told the audience.


Ghost is slowly coming out
[ LTTE Peace Secretariat ] [ 12:26 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

It is well know that Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, abandoned his party policy for short term political gain and joined up with Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic forces. At this time, leader of opposition, Ranil Wickremasinghe, is portraying himself as the friend of the minorities, Tamils, Upcountry Tamils, and Muslims, to attract their votes. Yet, views to the contrary are leaking from within Wickremasinghe's own party that appears to publicize the true nature of his party. The speech given by Naveen Dissanayake, in Kiligathana in Hatton last Thursday is a case in point. In the first instance it must be noted that Naveen Dissanayake is the son former UNP Minister, Gamini Dissanayake, and the son-in-law of Karu Jayasuriya, deputy president of UNP. Naveen Dissanayake is also the Nuwareliya district head for UNP.


Indian foreign minister removed
[ BBC ] [ 12:48 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

India's Foreign Minister, Natwar Singh, has been stripped off his post after allegations that he benefited from the Iraq UN oil-for-food scandal. A spokesman for the prime minister's office told the BBC that Mr Singh remains a minister. Natwar Singh and the main party in India's ruling coalition, Congress, were both named in a UN report into the scandal. Both deny any wrongdoing. India has ordered a judicial probe into the allegations.


Many postal votes rejected in NE
[ BBC ] [ 21:46 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

Election officials said nearly 40% of postal vote applications from the security forces serving in the North and East have been rejected. Only 4568 from Jaffna district and 3944 in Wanni district were allowed to cast their postal votes on Monday. Chief Inspector of Police, Vavuniya, Abeysinghe Bandara, said the officials had to reject some applications from the security forces and police as many of them were incomplete. K.Ganesh, chief retaining officer, Jaffna, said nearly 35% of the postal voters have cast their votes on Monday though many applications were rejected.


Sri Lanka Offers Tax Cuts as Defense Spending Rises
[ AFP ] [ 21:57 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

Sri Lanka is set to offer generous tax cuts in the annual budget Nov. 8 despite a sharp 23 percent increase in defense spending, official sources said. Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama told reporters here Nov. 7 that he will go ahead with presenting the budget despite protests from the opposition that it amounted to an undue advantage to the ruling party ahead of the Nov. 17 vote. Amunugama said the thrust of government spending next year would be to boost the health, education, information technology and infrastructure sectors, but he declined to discuss details of his revenue measures. 'The (outgoing) president (Chandrika Kumaratunga) has laid a solid foundation for a 6 percent GDP growth next year,' Amunugama said. He declined to give details, but Finance Ministry officials said the government is planning to offer duty-free cars to public servants and a plethora of tax cuts to importers and industrialists.


Sri Lanka will use aid to pare its budget gap
[ IHT ] [ 22:04 GMT, Nov. 7, 2005 ]

Sri Lanka will rely on overseas aid and debt relief pledged after the December tsunami disaster to help trim its budget deficit, Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama has said. The government will seek "the benefits of debt relief," to reduce next year's deficit to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product from the 9 percent the central bank estimates for 2005, Amunugama said late last week in Colombo. He is due to present the budget to Parliament on Tuesday afternoon. "Sri Lanka faces the short-term threat of the impact of large energy subsidies, which have not been fully passed on to the consumer," said Peter Harrold, the World Bank's representative in Sri Lanka. "Fuel subsidies could be funded in 2005 partly because of the fiscal space created by the debt moratorium granted to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the tsunami, but such fiscal space is unlikely to be available next year," he said.