Who plants the false news against election commission
A top American official on her way with a strong message.
The story we told is correct
‘Mawrata revealed everything…’
January 05 Gazette
Nominations January 19-21
March 04 vote
The whole country is ready
This is the main headline of last week’s ‘Mawrata’ weekly newspaper. The news we wrote regarding it is as follows.
Sources of the Election Commission state that after all the conspiracies launched by the government to postpone the local government elections have been defeated, arrangements have been made to issue the gazette notice calling the election on the 5th.
According to the sources of the commission, the nominations will be handed over between January 10 and 21 and the local government elections will be held on Saturday, March 4.
Throughout the past period, the government had taken steps to implement many strategies to somehow postpone the local government elections.
The first of these was to set the stage for postponing the election by saying that the number of members of the local government bodies has exceeded 8,000 and under the current situation it should be reduced to 4,000. But the government was not able to make it successful.
The second plan was to postpone the election by saying that the youth representation in the local government elections should be increased to 25% and draft laws should be drafted to limit the expenses incurred for the elections. But that too did not get a chance.
The third plan was to postpone the election by saying that the Janasabha system, which was a concept of the former Speaker Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, should be established. Mr. Karu Jayasuriya had even come to the cabinet meeting to deliver a speech in this regard. But the government was not able to make it successful.
Fourth, the government had planned to postpone the election by appointing the Constituent Assembly and re-appointing the representatives of the Election Commission. But that effort also failed because the government was not able to appoint the Constituent Assembly before the scheduled time to announce the election.
Finally, the government used the ongoing financial crisis to postpone the election. Although the government has been campaigning for the past few days saying that there is no money to spend on the elections under the current situation, the director general of the Election Commission said that the budget has already allocated money for the elections. Accordingly, the government’s efforts have failed so far.
Accordingly, the sources of the Election Commission say that the local government elections will be held on March 4th.
Under this background, it has been learned that several major parties are planning to contest this year’s local government elections in alliance.
It has been learned that although initially the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna will contest together, a final decision has not yet been taken. It is also known that many people are proposing that they should not join the UNP and contest alone.
Apart from this, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Dallas Alahapperuma party and Wimal Weerawansa party are discussing to contest under a new front.
However, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the National Jana Balawegaya have decided to compete alone this time. Accordingly, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya started calling for nominations from the candidates last Thursday, and it is reported that so far a large number of people have applied for nominations. It is also known that among this group there are a large number of people who were connected to UNP and Pohottuwa.
It is also reported that the National People’s Force has also started preparing the nomination lists for the local government elections.
In this year’s local government election, many minor parties have decided to compete together with Samagi Jana Balawega. Accordingly, representing the plantation, P. Digambaram’s party has decided to contest in alliance with Samagi Jana Balavega. It is reported that Jeevan Thondaman of Ceylon Labor Congress, the other political strongman of the plantation, has decided to present his party alone in the local government elections.
Mr. Rauf Hakim and Mr. Rishad Badiuddin, the leaders of the two main Muslim parties that hold power in the East, have decided to compete for the local government offices in the Eastern Province together with the Samagi Jana Balawega.
However, there are now signs that two main alliances will emerge for the local governments in the north. One of these alliances is the leader of the Tamil National Alliance under Mr. R.Sampanhan, the other alliance under Mr. C. V . Wigneswaran .
Apart from this, the most special event of this year’s local government election is the first time the Vanguard Socialist Party contested the election. Accordingly, it is reported that many new young faces and a large number of old people will contest the elections under Mr. Kumar Gunaratnam.
The last trump played
Accordingly, the Election Commission moved the date of this disclosure by only one day and issued the gazette calling the local government election on last Wednesday (04). While all the other media were contributing more or less to the government’s program to postpone the election, we alone took steps to expose the government’s program from the beginning to the country one by one.
However, even when the Election Commission was about to announce the election gazette, the government had not abandoned its plan to postpone the election. Accordingly, the government called an emergency zoom meeting last Sunday (Sunday) to make a last ditch effort to somehow appoint the Constituent Assembly and postpone the election. Anyway, the last plan of the government was to convene the Parliament on the 5th and appoint the Constituent Assembly and postpone the vote through an amendment of the Election Commission. The reason for this was that the legal advice received by the government indicated that it was the only option that could be dealt with in such a way that no legal problem would arise.
Accordingly, when Mr. Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, was handing out buses to schools outside Colombo last Sunday, a telephone call received from the Parliament said that a zoom discussion had been organized at 7.30 pm that evening in which the Speaker and the Prime Minister would participate. and that the matter of the Constituent Assembly is to be discussed there and the opposition leader to participate .
However, we took steps to publish this news on the morning of January 1st as an extraordinary news on our website. We published it because of the suspicions raised in the political field that the government will do something to postpone the vote through this zoom meeting. Because the Chairman of the Election Commission, Mr. Nimal Punchihewa, made a public statement that the election would be announced in the last week of December and then decided to postpone it until January 05. The fact that Mr. Punchiheva was a very close friend of the Rajapaksa had caused this suspicion to become more intense. Because of this, the opposition had a serious suspicion that Mr. Punchiheva was being led by someone sitting behind the screen.
Sajith is angry
Accordingly, when Sajith joined Zoom the discussion at the appointed time, Sajith noted Speaker and the Prime Minister too were participating in it. There, Sajith first asked that such an important discussion should not be held through Zoom technology, and that he can meet and discuss the matter after he comes to Colombo. But the speaker said that since this is an urgent discussion, it was arranged to be held through Zoom technology. The speaker also said that the aim of this is to appoint civilian representatives in the Legislative Assembly as soon as possible.
However, with this answer given by the speaker, it was seen that Sajith joined the discussion in a stricter manner than usual.
Why are you working so urgently on the appointment of these civil representatives? The Constituent Assembly is where the laws of the country are made. Therefore, we should make the appointment in such a way that no one can accuse the appointed representatives. It should be extremely independent. We remember that earlier rulers tried to bulldoze this legislative assembly. We have a great responsibility to work to prevent such a thing from happening again. Because the government cannot be allowed to control the Constituent Assembly and the Constituent Assembly cannot be allowed to control the government.
As long as I am the leader of the opposition, the government will not be allowed to use the Constituent Assembly to its full extent. The Constituent Assembly will not function until these three civil representatives are appointed. Even if those three are named, it cannot be done until the representatives of the minor parties are appointed. There is an agreement here that nothing will be done until minority party representatives are appointed. Tamil parties very rightly named Mr. Siddharthan as their representative.
But a party of the government named Mr. Udaya Gammanpila for it. First of all, stop this division within the government and name the representative of the minor parties. After that, we will talk about the three civil representatives…’ when Sajith said in a rather stern tone, the speaker said that the three civil representatives will be appointed and then we will talk about it. But Sajith clearly expressed his opposition to it.
The secret comes out of the mouth
However, it was at that moment that the secret of suddenly organizing this zoom discussion came out of the speaker’s mouth. Sajith could immediately understand the length and breadth of the game that the government is going to play on the 5th when the speaker said, ‘Since the parliament has been called on the 5th, these three names have been prepared to be presented on that day…’
No, there is no rule that this should be brought by the 5th. 06 is there, 07 is there, 8 is there. So let’s discuss this. First of all, ask him to intervene and appoint minor party representatives. Then we appoint civil representatives. Remember this well. We supported the 21st amendment not to bulldoze it on each other. If we had not support this, then the 21st amendment will be defeated. Therefore, neither you, nor the Prime Minister, nor I have the right to touch the work of bulldozing this.
I also agree with the speech of the leader of the opposition. Let’s leave this out. Let’s appoint the minor party representative first and then appoint the three civil organization representatives. Accordingly, another attempt by the government to postpone the election by naming the Constituent Assembly in Parliament on the 5th was seen failed.
Three more games played
In this way, the message that the discussion ended without any decision was reported to the higher authorities of the government. Accordingly, there was a special discussion among the high-ranking officials of the government about what other plans could be made to somehow postpone the local government elections. Several proposals were discussed there. In one of the proposals that came, it was said that the proposal to make the youth representation to 25%, which was a private member proposal of MP Premanath Dolawatta, which is currently included in the parliamentary agenda, was to be presented to the parliament and a way of postponing the local government election was prepared through that.
The second proposal was to prepare an opinion within the country that there is no unanimity in the election commission when there is an opinion that there is a division in the election commission. The third proposal was to create an opinion in the country that there is no money for voting and if 10 billion is allocated for voting at this moment, it will be impossible not only to pay public employee salaries or pensions, but even to buy paddy. Accordingly, a decision was taken in that discussion to implement all these three operations simultaneously.
It is the position of many that the suggestion that there is a division in the Election Commission should be carried across the country must be a signal given by someone. The resolution stated that if one of the five members of the commission withdraws, the gazettes issued by the commission will not be valid. Accordingly, when there is a division in the commission, the people who submitted this proposal were of the opinion that if the chairman Nimal Punchiheva or someone else is removed, the local government election can be postponed.
The story generated from the same place
Accordingly, all of a sudden, a news published in all the newspapers and websites said that there is a big division in the Election Commission. It was not difficult for everyone to understand that this news has been distributed to all media from one place as soon as they saw this news published in all media at the same time.
In addition, when the Parliament met on the 5th, the Rehabilitation Bureau Bill and the Bill for taking back the possession of leased premises were to be read for the second time, but at the beginning, the private member’s proposal of Premanath Dolawatta was presented to the Parliament as previously discussed. As soon as this proposal was presented to the Parliament, the opposition strongly protested and said that the government is presenting this proposal with the aim of postponing the elections. JVP leader Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who stood up there, asked the government if this proposal would be submitted to the cabinet and follow the specific procedure that it should reach the parliament.
At first, the government representatives gave evasive answers, but in the end, the Minister of Justice Wijayadasa Rajapaksa said that the proposal was submitted to the cabinet and planned to be submitted to the parliament following the specific procedure. Accordingly, the Minister of Justice said that by the time it comes to the Parliament, the local government elections will have been held and completed. Accordingly, it was seen that the government’s attempt to postpone the election through Dolawatta’s MP proposal failed.
A division within the commission?
Since the Election Commission had already issued the gazette announcement that the election would be held on Tuesday, the government next planned to re-socialize the news that there was a division within the Election Commission and establish the opinion that an election cannot be held in such a situation. Accordingly, on Thursday, news published in all the media said that the President called the members of the Election Commission to the Presidential Secretariat for a discussion, where he was informed to come to a consensus regarding the conduct of the election. All the newspapers in Sri Lanka had reported this news in this way.
Here is the story appeared in the papers
The President tells the Election Commission to come to an opinion
President Ranil Wickramasinghe informed the four members of the Election Commission today (5) that they should come to one opinion instead of giving four opinions regarding the holding of the local government election.
The President mentioned this when the four members of the Election Commission came to the Presidential Secretariat this evening and met the President.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, Additional Solicitor General Neril Pulle, Election Commission Director General Mr. Saman Sri Ratnayake and four members of the Commission also participated in this discussion.
Commenting on the four opinions of the members of the Election Commission regarding the local government election, the President said that the independence of the Commission has been handed over to the Commission and a decision should be reached by a majority unanimous opinion.
The President said that there is no obstacle for the Election Commission to act independently and informed that the Commission will seek written advice from the Attorney General if necessary.
Speaking there, the Attorney General said that if there is any legal problem regarding the work of the Election Commission, he should be asked about it directly.
According to political sources, the discussion ended without agreement because the members of the Election Commission did not agree.
Here’s what really happened
Even if the newspaper’s report the information in this manner, what we came to know is that when the president asked about the opinion of the commission in this discussion, the officials have informed the president that all the members are working from one point of view. The news of the Rajya Rahas column is that the president has not given any answer. But it is noteworthy that the news published in the media said that the president had informed the members of the commission to work from one point of view.
The President also asked the Commission about the election. The chairman of the commission, Mr. Nimal Punchahewa, said that if no constitutional problem or judicial problem arises, the commission will conduct the election without any problem. It is news that the President has not given a reply to that. It is also known that the Attorney General has not spoken a single word here.
The story told by Panchihewa to ‘Mawrata’
However, with all the media reporting that there is a division within the Election Commission, the ‘Mawrata’ newspaper made a direct phone call to the Chairman of the Election Commission, Mr. Nimal Punchihewa, to inquire about it. There, Mr. Punchihewa directly said that there is no division in the commission. Mr. Punchihewa told ‘Mawrata’ that such news is sent by someone from one place.
There is no division within the commission. We act with collective responsibility. In every issue, we have discussed and taken decisions by consensus of all. We have done it with collective unity and agreement. They have been written in all those places. From this one place, someone is planting news that there is a division within the commission. Some media are showing this. But there is no division or ideology among us. We will proceed with the election in the same way…’ was Mr. Punchihewa’s statement to ‘Mawrata’.
Accordingly, one is clear. It means that the government’s plan to postpone the vote by creating a division within the commission has failed. Apart from that, even though the pro-government parties said that there has been a division in the Election Commission, it was also a special event that all the announcements issued by the Commission over the past few days had the unanimous approval of all its five members.
Apart from this, Mr. Punchihewa made another statement on Thursday morning. It is related to election expenses. There he said that the election will cost 10 billion, but it is planned to reduce it to 08 billion. He also said that by holding the election on a weekday instead of on a holiday, a lot of expenses can be reduced. Also, Panchihewa mentioned that the budget has already allocated money for the election. Accordingly, the government’s campaign to postpone the election on no money excuse got defeated with this statement of Mr Punchihewa.
Will there be a trick played on the 17th?
However, the date of the election and the gazette notification for acceptance of nominations are scheduled to be published on the 18th. But now information is being reported to the opposition that the government is ready to launch some strategy to finally postpone the election on the 17th Parliament Day.
Although the Minister of Justice said in Parliament that the proposal to make 25% youth representation will be submitted to the Cabinet and following the prescribed measures, information has been reported to the opposition about preparations to submit and pass this proposal to Parliament on the 17th. It is said that the government’s plan is to create some uncertainty regarding the election through that.
Meanwhile, President Ranil Wickramasinghe and Pohottuwa have to face the most serious problem after giving nominations for the election. Especially under the current situation of the UNP, let alone running for the election, the President declared on Thursday that he would not come to any election platform and remain independently.
Through this, in order to prevent the current members of the UNP from running for election from other parties, in a message sent by the UNP for the past few days, it was said that all the representatives of the UNP who are currently in the local councils should submit nomination again under the symbol of the elephant, and since no election will be held, they will remain in their positions as members for another year or six months. It was mentioned in the message given by the UNP to its MPs that if the nominations are not given, they will not be able to hold the MP positions and will not be able to compete in the upcoming elections. Last week, this is how Pohotuttuwa also managed to deliver this message to its members.
Signs of losing aids
In this way, the UNP and Pohottuwa campaigned that the election would be postponed in order to get the current candidates to contest the election from the same parties instead of going to other parties. Already a group of about 70% Pohottuwa MPs have informed the party that they have decided not to contest this year’s local government election under Pohottuwa. Accordingly, Pohottuwa is currently facing a serious problem in finding candidates for the election. Based on this fact, both the parties are campaigning that the elections will be postponed by 06 months or a year.
However, if the Election Commission has called the election as planned by the government and postpones it in any way, the consequences for the country could be dire. Especially the International Monetary Fund and the international community are waiting for a government with a mandate to emerge in Sri Lanka. Mr. Peter Brewer, the regional head of the International Monetary Fund, visited Sri Lanka a few months ago and during the press conference held with the authorities, emphasized that in order to carry out the political reforms expected by the International Monetary Fund, a government with a mandate should be formed in Sri Lanka.
The main yardstick to measure what that mandate is the local government election. But the government is preparing to postpone it as well, which means that a situation will arise where Sri Lanka will not even receive the aid it is supposed to receive from the International Monetary Fund. Moreover, it is certain that there will be a situation in which Sri Lanka will not receive even aid from other countries and organizations.
Did Julia come to Gota’s house or not?
Former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka last Thursday (05) from a trip to Dubai with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to take a break. During this trip, we posted the places he visited with photos on our website, mawrata Sinhala news, in a background where no media in this country reported about it. Accordingly, we decided to post photos of Gota relaxing in the Dubai Miracle Garden, walking with his wife in shopping malls, visiting a private zoo and being with animals.
Meanwhile, last week we revealed another special news about Gota. It is said that Mrs. Julie Chang, the American ambassador, came to meet Gota at his residence on Malalasekara Mawatha and told Gota not to try to get an American visa. We revealed the news because on the day Gota left for Dubai, all the media in this country had published a blatant lie that Gota had gone to America. We said that Gota applied for an American visa and went to Dubai where it was rejected, and that the American ambassador came to the house and informed him not to do so because of his repeated requests for an American visa.
However, after this disclosure we made, a certain website called Gota’s personal secretary, Sugeeshwara Bandara, and took steps to inquire about the truth and falsity of this story. There, Sugishwara had stated that such a thing did not happen and that it was false, and later it was seen how the website mentioned below had reported the news in a big way. But we do not know if Sugishwara knows the incident exactly, but we are very responsible to say that before Gota left for Dubai, the American ambassador came to Gota’s house and gave the message. There, Gota had applied to the American Embassy to grant him a tourist visa (visit visa) only to visit America.
Green card re-applied
However, this time we are ready to make another special revelation regarding Gota. It is that Gota has submitted an application to the Green Card Lottery to go to America again while he is in Dubai. I don’t know if his personal secretary, Sugeeshwara, knows about it, but we are ready to say with responsibility that such a thing happened. We do not know to say whether he is entitled for this under the current situation.
There are no Rajapaksas around Basil
Basil Rajapaksa, who is considered to be the mastermind of Pohotu, lives these days in a house located behind the Water’s Edge Hotel in Battaramulla. Special discussions, meetings, parties, and dinners are usually held at Basil’s house, but it is rare to hear of religious sermons and alms giving are taking place there. But these days Basil’s wife Mrs. Pushpa Rajapakse is also in Sri Lanka, so recently a pinkama with alms giving was organized at Basil’s house. For that, they had chosen last December 31, when a year has passed and a New Year dawns.
However, several noteworthy happenings witnessed during this religious events at Basil’s house. The first was that no one representing the Rajapaksa family participated in it. Usually, be it at Mahinda’s house or at Chamal’s house, there are frequent pirith and charity ceremonies, and it is a common event that many people participate representing the Rajapaksa family.
But it is a special incident that Mahinda or Chamal or Namal or Shashindra or Shiranti did not participate in the Pirit Pinka held that day at Basil’s house. Also, although many ministers were invited from Pohottuwa, to December 31st, not more than 10 to 12 MPs be seen there. Accordingly, it was seen that there was a rumour among the people present that no one from the Rajapaksa family could be seen and the local government election was another topic there.
The representative from America
Last week, in an extraordinary disclosure through the Rajya Rahas column, we said that a massive cyber-attack has been launched on India, and during a long investigation, India has discovered that this attack was launched through Chinese and Hong Kong computer addresses and email addresses. Accordingly, we revealed that the Indo-China conflict has escalated based on the security of the Indian Ocean region, that India has tightened the security of its ocean region, and that suddenly the Commander of the Indian Navy came to Sri Lanka and met President Ranil Wickramasinghe and held discussions here, and under this growing situation, we mentioned that India is eyeing Trincomalee.
This time we are about to reveal another special event that no one knows about that is going to happen in relation to this series of events. That is how a special representative of the US Joe Biden government is preparing to visit Sri Lanka on the 10th. This special representative is ‘Sumona Guha’, the security adviser appointed by the Biden administration in charge of the South Asian region. She is known as an expert in the field of defence of Indian origin. During this visit, she is scheduled to meet the President, it is also known to the Rajya Rahas column.
However, after coming to Sri Lanka, she is going to visit India and Bangladesh. It is known that there will be a long discussion about the emerging security situation in the Indian Ocean region. Many people are of the opinion that the visit of a high-ranking security representative of the Biden administration to Sri Lanka will be very crucial in the background where high-ranking officials of the Indian government have come to Sri Lanka in the last few days and made many demands.
Cabinet paper upset China
Although the Central Bank had initially announced that Sri Lanka would receive the loan from the International Monetary Fund last December, the Ministers related to the government are saying that it may be delayed until next March. The reason for that is that the financial fund has put forward a condition that the loans taken from China and India should be restructured. Due to the lack of a definite word from China and India regarding the restructuring of this debt, it is possible to see a stalemate in the discussions of the financial fund. If one of these two countries gets confused, there is a risk of not getting loans.
Under this background, after the cabinet meeting held last week, it was seen that China was very nervous. That is because they have received information that a cabinet paper regarding the provision of many crucial projects to India has been presented to the cabinet meeting that day. According to this, after a long research on this, the news is that China is currently preparing a document about the projects it wants in Sri Lanka. It is also known that they have already submitted a part of it to the government.
Accordingly, under the current situation, in order to balance both India and China, it has been seen that the government has to please both countries by giving a significant amount of the projects requested by both countries. Many people are of the opinion that if they do not do so, it will have a negative impact on the debt restructuring negotiations. Accordingly, it can be suspected that a cold war has started between India and China based on the Sri Lankan projects.
The latest wave of protest
Last week, several special events took place. The most important event was the reaction of the workers to the Chairman of Maga Neguma Institute as well as the Chairman of the Export Development Board in the New Year. On New Year’s Day, a New Year’s dinner table was prepared at the Maga Neguma Peliyagoda factory, and the chairman and high-ranking officials who came to participate in it had to be attacked by workers. Next, the chairman of the Export Development Board had called the workers for the New Year and when the chairman was about to speak, all the workers stood up and turned their backs on the chairman. Many people had mentioned that after the leaders were driven out by the people in the struggle, a new wave is emerging in the country where the employees of the institutions do not accept political appointments.
In addition to this, two other prominent happening caught the attention of the president last week. It was none other than Mr. Ashok Pathirage, who was the Sri Lankan chairman, and Mr. Mohammad Uwais, who was the chairman of the Petroleum Corporation. These two got the attention of the country because they have taken steps to pay bonuses to their employees this year too, claiming that these two institutions are losing crores of rupees. The media had reported that the Sri Lankan Airlines had spent 58 crores and the oil corporation had spent 1,200 crores for that. In this regard, the President has taken steps to call for a report immediately, but no one can say right now if anything will happen.
Shashindra took off his coat and returned to the scarf
We have taken steps to point out through the Rajya Rahas column that Mr. Chamal Rajapaksa and Shashindra Rajapaksa, the elder brother of the Rajapaksa family, have created a political crisis with the Rajapaksa family in the past. There we said that Chamal and Shashindra avoided many political events involving Mahinda and Basil. We also pointed out that President Ranil Wickremesinghe is close to the Shashindra Rajapaksa family. As far as that closeness is concerned, we also showed with photographs that Shashindra came to parliament wearing a tie coat without the kurahan scarf that Mahinda christen Shashindra politically.
However, by now we have come to know that Shashindra will again leave the tie coat and wear the usual kurahan scarf and come to Parliament. It is not known whether it is because of a grudge with the President, or because he has decided be with the Rajapaksa family again.
By Special Correspondent