LG polls on March 17

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake yesterday announced that the Local Government election would be held on March 17 to elect 3,931 members for 301 Local Government bodies islandwide.

Over 20,000 candidates will vie for 301 slots in four Municipal Councils, 39 Urban Councils and 258 Pradeshiya Sabahas while over 12 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballot.

Acceptance of nominations from recognized political parties ended at noon yesterday without any major incident while acceptance of deposits from the independent groups conducted at noon Wednesday.

A number of nomination lists from many recognized political parties and independent groups were rejected by the Returning Officers and Assistant Elections Commissioners due to various discrepancies in the nomination lists.

Several nomination lists of UPFA and UNP were rejected as the names of the candidates were not attested by a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner of Oaths.

In the Colombo District, nomination list submitted by the UNP for Homagama PS was rejected while the JHU list for the Maharagama PS was also not accepted due to errors in the nomination papers.

The UNP also raised objections against the UPFA nomination list for the Maharagama Urban Council without success.

UNP nomination lists for Baddegama PS, Eravur UC and Warakapola PS were rejected while UPFA nomination lists for 16 Local Government bodies in the Jaffna District, Akmeemana, Siyabalanduwa, Moneragala and Polgahawela, Yatinuwara, Wigamuwa and Pallepola PSs failed to pass muster.

The nomination lists by the UNP and the UPFA for the Embilipitiya PS were rejected by the District Returning Officer.

The TNA nomination lists for Poonekery and Pachchiyapalli PSs in the Kilinochchi District also failed to go through. The JVP nomination list for Wilgamuwa and Nattandiya PSs and the SLMC list for Ukuwela PS also failed to receive endorsement. In the Ratnapura District the UNP list for Weligepola PS had been rejected. The nomination lists submitted by the SLMC for Akurana PS in the Kandy District also suffered the same fate.

No official declaration with regard to the acceptance of nominations was made by the Elections Department at the time of going to press.

The first nomination list was presented by Janasetha Peramuna led by Ven Battaramulle Seelarathna Thera for the Kesbewa and Homagama PSs.

The Elections Commissioner last week turned down all application for the registration of new political parties on the grounds that these parties have not met the criteria laid down by the Department.

Elections will also be held in the newly established Local Government bodies. Kaduwela, Dambulla, Akkaraipattu and Bandarawela Urban Councils which were elevated to the status of Municipal Councils while Eravur PS became an UC. New Pradeshiya Sabhas were created in Narammala, Irakkamam and Lunugala.

පුංචි ඡන්දයට සන්ධානය සූදානම් පොදු එකඟතාවකට පැමිණි බව අගමැති කියයි

ඉදිරි පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේදී පොදු එකඟතාවයකින් තරඟ කිරීමට එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයට අයත් සියලු පක්ෂ ඊයේ (23) තීරණය කළ බව අගමැති දි.මු.ජයරත්න මහතා පැවැසීය.

එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ පක්ෂ නායක හමුව අගමැති දි.මු.ජයරත්න මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී ඊයේ (23) පැවැති අතර එහිදී මෙම එකඟතාවයට පැමිණ තිබේ.

පළාත් පාලන ආයතන 301 ක් සඳහා මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයා පසුගිය (20) දා සිට නාම යෝජනා කැඳවා තිබුණි.

එම ආයතන 301 සඳහා ම එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය කරඟ කරයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ඇතුළු එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයෙන් මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය සඳහා තරුණ අපේක්ෂකයන් සඳහා වැඩි ඉඩ කඩක් ලබා දී තිබේ.

මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය සඳහා අපේක්ෂකත්වය ලබා ගැනීමට අති විශාල පිරිසක් ඉදිරිපත් වී සිටීම සුවිශේෂී ලක්ෂණයකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයෙන් අපේක්ෂකත්වය ඉල්ලා අයදුම්පත් දස දහසකට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයට ලැබී තිබූ අතර ඒ අය අතුරින් සමාජ පිළිගැනීමක් ඇති, බුද්ධිමත්, විනය විරෝධී චෝදනා නොමැති සුදුස්සන්ට පමණක් අපේක්ෂකත්වය ලබා දෙන ලෙස ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා නාම යෝජනා මණ්ඩවලට උපදෙස් ලබා දී තිබිණි.

දැනට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හෝ පළාත් සභාව නියෝජනය කරන අයගේ සමීපතම ඡාතීන්ට පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේ දී නාමයෝජනා ලබා නොදීමට ද නාම යෝජනා පිළිබඳ ජාතික කමිටුව තීරණය කර තිබේ. පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේ කටයුතු මෙහෙයවීම සඳහා එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය විසින් ජාතික මෙහෙයුම් කමිටුවක්ද පත්කර තිබේ.

ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුතු එම කමිටුවට අගමැති දි.මු. ජයරත්න, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මහ ලේකම් මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ මහ ලේකම් සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත, නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා, විමල් වීරවංශ, ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම යන ඇමැතිවරු ඊට අයත් වෙති.

එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය විසින් ජාතික මැතිවරණ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටුවට අමතරව නාම යෝජනා ජාතික කමිටුවක් පත්කර තිබේ. දිස්ත්‍රික් මට්ටමින්ද, පළාත් මට්ටමින්ද නාමයෝජනා කමිටු පත්කර තිබූ අතර ඒ සියලු කමිටුවල වාර්තා සළකා බැලීම අගමැති දි.මු. ජයරත්න මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඊයේ (23) පැවැති රැස්වීමේදී සිදු කෙරිණි.

President tells media : Help build amity

*Development major challenge before country

*Communal amity essential for development

It is the duty of the media to help build amity among all communities and not contribute to fostering hatred among people, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the Heads and Editors of the Private and State Media at Temple Trees yesterday.

Responding to a question as to what he considered the major challenge in the New Year, President Rajapaksa said it was development, adding that unity and communal amity were essential to proceed with the tasks of development.

Stressing that the media had every right to criticize the Government, which right would always be protected, the President appealed to the media to play an active role in fostering unity among all communities. “Please take every action necessary to heal the wounds of the past,” he said. He made a special appeal to the Tamil media not to encourage efforts to create hatred among the Tamil people against the Sinhalese. Do not promote thinking and ideologies that promote hatred. The suffering caused through 30 years is enough and we must strengthen the process of healing, he said, posing the question “Where would continued hatred lead us to?”

The development work that has been launched was the answer to those who sought to spread the message of communal hatred and may even be trying to revive the forces of division that had been defeated, he said. President Rajapaksa emphasized that having defeated the separatist expectations of Prabhakaran, he was not prepared to give in to the same demand if made by any others.

The Government had invested considerable funds for development in the North, to restore the livelihoods of the people and these efforts should not be negated. All this expense was needed to rebuild what had been destroyed by the forces of terror. As an example he said how the Kilinochchi Hospital that had been built with ADB funding had been destroyed by the LTTE, as it had destroyed the railway, communications facilities, water towers and other common amenities.

The Government had already spent Rs 2.5 billion on restoration and development work in Kilinochchi town alone, that had a population of 27,000 families.

This should open the eyes of those who claimed that nothing was being done for the Tamil people of the North.

President Rajapaksa said that the people in the southern villages also felt the pain of all the years when terrorism was threatening the nation. They felt this pain as much as the Tamil people and were keen to be rid of the hatred of that period, to live in peace and harmony with the Tamil people. He also decried efforts by some sections of the media to exaggerate some of the problems of the country that were not unusual in a post-conflict situation anywhere.

There was turbulence in all post-conflict societies and Sri Lanka had already achieved much in just one and half years after the defeat of terrorism. The Government was aware of these problems, such as criminal activity, which were being addressed. He regretted the efforts by some to use this situation to show Sri Lanka as a failed state and impose burdens on the people through this means.

The Government could be attacked as in any democracy, but the people must not be attacked or made to suffer through such action, carried out with the expectation of lowering the image of Sri Lanka in the world, the President said.