The Yahapalana Government is in the throes of the worst crisis with the United National Party (UNP) vexed over President Sirisena playing his cards close to his chest.
Sirisena, who is also the leader of the other major partner of the government, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), has of late kept Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (Leader of the UNP) in the dark about his moves.
First, the President is yet to release the report submitted by the Commission of Inquiry into the Central Bank bond scam. Even Ranil Wickremesinghe is yet to receive a copy of the report. UNP Deputy Leader and former Minister of Finance who was named and shamed by Sirisena when he made a special statement, has called for the release of the report.
Karunanayake hinted that Sirisena has left out parts of the report. He finally made a formal request to the Presidential Secretariat to release the report citing the Right to Information Act.
Meanwhile Wickremesinghe called for a Parliamentary debate on the report, but a debate was not possible since Sirisena is sitting on it.
Secondly, according to sources close to the UNP leadership, the party is upset that Sirisena has sought a Supreme Court opinion about the possibility of continuing as President until January 2021.
This move prompted an emergency meeting of the UNP leaders. The meeting had been adjourned for the MPs to attend Parliament and was resumed thereafter.
Although the formal agreement between the two parties lapsed at the end of the year there the future of the partnership has not been brought to question so far. The agitation in the UNP camp seems to have arisen because of the secretive nature of Sirisena’s recent moves.
Sirisena came to power on a mandate to change the constitution, in particular to abolish the Executive Presidency. He has on numerous occasions vowed to do so and has claimed that he would not seek re-election.
On one occasion he offered the following comment on the matter:
“I insisted that the terms of the Presidency be reduced to four years, but the Committee of Constitutional Experts and political leaders did not agree with my demand. They said that holding a Presidential Election every four years was not good for the country.”
19th Amendment to the Constitution states:
3). Article 30 of the Constitution is hereby repealed and the following Article substituted therefor:-
(1) There shall be a President of the Republic of Sri Lanka, who is the Head of the State, the Head of the Executive and of the Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
(2) The President of the Republic shall be elected by the People and shall hold office for a term of five years.”.
Section 49 of 19th Amendment:
49. (1) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that,–
(a) the Seventh Parliament in existence on the day preceding the date on which this Act comes into operation, shall, unless dissolved earlier, continue to function until April 21, 2016 and shall thereafter stand dissolved;
(b) the persons holding office respectively, as the President and Prime Minister on the day preceding April 22, 2015 shall continue to hold such office after such date, subject to the provisions of the Constitution as amended by this Act;
and
(c) every person holding office on the day preceding ……..
The binding nature of a mandate sought through a manifesto and rhetoric aside, the 19th Amendment of the Constitution clearly states that Sirisena will hold office only in accordance to this particular amendment and not as per the constitutional provisions that existed when he was elected on 08 January 2015. This means that the amended version of Article 30 holds. In other words, “The President of the Republic shall be elected by the People and shall hold office for a term of five years.”
According to sources, while Sirisena’s inquiry about the length of his term is therefore surprising, his preference to operate on his own on such an important matter has irked the companions of his Yahapalana journey. Hence the agitated response in the UNP camp, sources added.
Jim softy / January 10, 2018
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Jim softy / January 10, 2018
President should show some respect to his position by not aligning anymore with the corrupt PM. I was commenting about the Photo. It is simply everybody starts stinking because went near by.
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Perriamma / January 10, 2018
Oh dear, Sirisena staying on for one more year delays Ranils ultimate dream of becoming president.
Of course, he lost the election in 1999 and 2005.
Will he be denied again?
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Native Vedda / January 11, 2018
Perriamma
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“Of course, he lost the election in 1999 and 2005.”
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Of course VP helped Dr Mahinda Rajapaksa (LLD) in 2005, by ballot rigging.
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“Will he be denied again?”
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Lets for the time being forget about Ranil’s Inauguration as the Head of state.
Don’t you think Dr Mahinda (LLD)’s clan as well as its b***s carriers are worried because VP is dead and gone?
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Rohan Gunaratne / January 10, 2018
Jimmy,
Get some sleep man you are staying awake 24×7 and throwing mud at UNP. Take a rest man or retire.
No body is interested in your stupid comments.
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Jim softy / January 11, 2018
Rohan Gunarathne Modaya At least you were interested in that and responded. You are hurting because two leaders of the Unpatriotic National Party was caught robbing the country. What would D.S. and Dudley thinking. JRJ relatives with the help of Tamils and Bohra businessmen destroyed the party
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Real Revolutionist / January 11, 2018
Rohan goonaratne
Don’t think anybody wants to throw mud at UNP because they’re drenched in mud pit (including you).
Man, @ least awake now.
Be a progressive man in society & express solidarity with forces against corruption.
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Mallika De Zoysa / January 12, 2018
Mr Rohan Goonarane, you are one of the last persons who can speak about corruption. While living in plush Singapore, you aided and abetted Gota’s massive corruption. The whole country knows that.
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Bakaladasa / January 11, 2018
This is another of those famous chess moves of My3.
The Supreme Court will say NO – and he wil abide by it and will brag!
“You see? I honour the Law”- and will contest for second term.
Already he has started pushing RW to a corner on Bond Scam to the extent that RW is driven to the level of a slum goon!
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Jim softy / January 11, 2018
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Desmond Fernando / January 11, 2018
If he contests, Gota will also contest. None of them will get the minority vote.RW will win with great ease since in the eyes of GOD he’s still Mr Clean.(not a murderer nor a Fraudster)
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thilan / January 12, 2018
Gota can easily get 58 lacks votes + 800000 new votes out of 1.3 million fresh voters going cast their votes in 2020 + atleast 500000 floating sinhala votes then he is in stredy position with 7.1 million votes. For ranil 3.1 million votes of unp mano ganeshan and other small parties with unp+700000 tna votes+ 500000 muslim congress votes+300000 votes from digambaram + 400000 sinhala floating votes + 500000 fresh voters+ 200000 votes from hela urumaya and other sinhala parties supporting unp. The total is 57 lacks. If jvp supports ranil (the possibility is very low) he will get another 600000 votes the maximum is 6.3 million votes. That means gota will win the election with 800000 votes majority. If mithree contests he will break the minority 16 lacks votes in to two peices Since tamil and muslims love maithree a lot. In a case most of the tamils love maithree than unp. If maithree get 700000 minority votes then gota ein with a majority of 1.5 million. This will be a mandade like 2010 mandate for mahinda. If maithree contest gota has a one horse race.
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Rajiv / January 11, 2018
Perriamma,
Ranil has no chance of becoming President. He knows that, we know that. Perhaps executive PM if the presidency is abolished which will not happen.
Bakaladasa,
True, MS will now take credit for following the “rule of law” and will continue to praise himself. He knew about this already, so this is just for show.
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shankar / January 11, 2018
is there a connection between siri sitting on the report and asking about a 6th year in offce?UNP can’t raise a rumpus i report with him having a loaded gun.Siri must think of the people.he is not the owner of the report.The people are.The bond commission was not paid out of siri’s personal funds.
Release the report siri without playing silly games.Start respecting the people.Your lack of respect for the people since you got the job of president has caused you the LG elections whre you may even come 4th after the JVP. Remember how you started off your new career by slapping the people in the face by appointing those who were rejected by the people to the national list.You became drunk with power from day 1 and the people are ready to give you also a slap in the face.
Also if you told the people you will abolish the presidency,then abolish it.Don’t keep on treating the people with disdain just like your predecessors mahinda and chandrika.If you want to join them in retirement then continue to do so.people don’t want those two anymore and won’t want you also.
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Mallaiyuran / January 11, 2018
If Ceylon had aimed to remain Ceylon, Tamil might have saved it. Ceylon Wanted become Singapore so brought Indian Pakistani Citizenship acts, MMDA, Sinhala Only Standardization……. Now It has turned into Lankawe. Somebody wanted create a Ganapathy Statue, but now it has become a monkey’s stature. Try to start to dream as Lankawe becoming Ceylon Again. Then the Britannians make come back and hand over the Hepitipolas to UN Electric chair and make it as the the most prosperous country in the South East.
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Lankan No 03 / January 11, 2018
What all should do is give power to JVP to rule for 5 years .see how all thieves will be behind bars and people will feel relieved from all corruption.
Within 10 years time Sri Lanka will be stronger than Singapore.
If you want this vote for JVP
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Jim softy / January 11, 2018
JVP should go to the village level and should explain at the grass root level. both parties are thieves and none submitted their Assets and refuse to submit. Should explain how incompatible are their salaries, perks, benefits and their accumulated assets, and how they attach to the parliament like leeches and none is interested in removing them because they all are LAW makers.
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Analyst / January 11, 2018
@ Sinhala man !
Yes vote for JVP as you go on harping without fail.
What kind of losers are they?
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Percy / January 11, 2018
Give power to the JVP whether the people like it or not ? TypicalJvP
Totalirianism !
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Mallaiyuran / January 12, 2018
Which JVP you mean man? Somawansa’s JVP or Weerawansa’s JVP?
We all heard a lot of talks in CT before New King come to power. If you want to corrupt Kumar(Anura Kumara) give him power. He will beat our Gentlemanly Pakaya. Vasu or NMP or Colvin………….
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Dan / January 11, 2018
UNP for the past three years played all their cards close to their chests and President was never aware of those moves.
It is well known that the bond scam, delaying corruption inquiries against Rajapakshas, dividing the SLFP etc were all done with the full knowledge of the PM.
All these actions directly or indirdctly affected President integrity as well.
Being an astute politician President must be now using the same tactics.
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Buddhi Perera / January 11, 2018
Dan is absolutely correct.
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punchinilame / January 11, 2018
Sirisena will be pushed to go for a 2nd term – this was instilled in him by his family circles and cohorts and
being the type who was cajoled to take the lead with due support has gone crazy with greed for power. He
is still shivering the Rajapakses and will prevent them from being arrested until he is able to step forward
again bargaining his political safety, Is he not marking time with Ranil, whose fate is in the balance.
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Edward / January 11, 2018
Everyone is shouting Hora, Hora. PM instead of disproving the accusations against him and his accomplices, poinnts his fingers at MR&co whom he is accused of shielding for the past three years. The attack may be the best form of defense. President’s track records are not unblemished. While the big Horas helping themselves unemployed youths who have been denied opportunities to earn a decent living forced by these robbers to stoop to petty robberies or get addicted drugs or young women as sex workers and end in jail. Still, others go to foreign lands and suffer to keep the fires burning at home some get even burned. How many broken homes. frustrated men and women some even commits suicide.
As the war done anything good to the country. Indian, American and the Chinese share portions of our country through small, now the Chinese flag fly higher than our national flag. We proudly display the cheque as the award won by selling our motherland. ag. We proudly display the cheque as the award won by selling our motherland.
QUO VADIS SRI LANKA
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Jim softy / January 11, 2018
Do not VOTE Jackal Opposition aka Pohottuwa aka SLPP. Jackal Opposition is helping UNP to stop further investigations on Bond Scam.
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Mallaiyuran / January 11, 2018
When was this picture taken? Ranil looks like a backbone broken kickboxer! Anyway New King should not have done this him. It is not nice, Ne?.
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DPJ / January 11, 2018
This cohabiting government has not done anything worthwhile for the country so far. There was inter-fighting between the two and intra-fighting with MARA. The UNP who was finding it difficult even to pay the electricity bill of Srikotha was hell bent on finding money on the sly and with the help of Mahendran launched the Operation Bond to find money for the party. But Mahaendran’s family did not want to stop with that and went far beyond. The end result was the Bond Scam. In that they gave space for MARA to fight on and UNP had to hide like an ostrich. The govt. was compelled to neglect development work. It was only worried about keeping the MPP intact and gave them all the privileges. Shame on you Ranil and Sirisena. MARA IS NOW RIDING HIGH.
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Mallaiyuran / January 11, 2018
The 8th grade Horas were calling LLB Hora in the Parliament “Hora”. They all are hoping to chase Ranil out using this opportunity and making the 18th amendment real.
Chief Election Commissioner has to advice Speaker to shut down the parliament until the election. Parliament has to print Hansard. Relay the preceding on TV. This is not suitable before election. This is a pre-planned campaign the Joint Comedy Club staged. They printed a 2nd Udayan in the North.
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Park / January 11, 2018
President should also be blamed for the situation in the Parliament. One group knowing their members have been branded rogues took the chance to attack UNP as President released only the Bond Commission Report and not the other reports which were also handed over to the President which finds fault with the members of the group that attacked UNP. Some of these reports were delivered to the President well before Bond report. The question is why did the President release only one report and not the others?
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Percy / January 11, 2018
Ranil is a despicable man. At the last Presidential election he took advantage of the anti Rajapakses feeling among Tamils who were livid that MR got rid of Sungod Prabakaran. Ranil went to Jaffna and stood on the platform and shouted Poda Rajapakses and the Tamils in the North cheered wildly. It paid RW good electoral dividends.
Now that he is identified as the man who hired Mahendran and as the one who did everything possible to prevent, obstruct any investigation into the Bon scam, he has been caught with his pants down. To satisfy his moronic followers he stood up in Parliament and shouted “Rajapakse Hora’ when he RW is the biggest hora who ever sat in Parliament. How shocking is this??
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soma / January 11, 2018
I believe Rsnil is behind this move.
Soma
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Real Revolutionist / January 11, 2018
It’s thanks to MS that UNP, particularly RW registered marginal election win & the problem now is without his support?
May depend on racially based political parties but to annoy genuine citizens.
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Sinhala_Man / January 11, 2018
Dear Punchinilame,
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You may be proved right, but I will be disappointed. If My3 starts playing rather dirty politics of this sort, his integrity is going to be questioned. It just won’t be nice.
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However, given the over-all picture right now , I may continue to support him. However, at the Local Government elections I may vote JVP (I will always have the choice of continuing to support them later).
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Isn’t all this skullduggery rather depressing?
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Draken / January 11, 2018
If the devil himself stood in front of you with all his ugliness camouflaged with charm and gentlemanliness and all smooth talk, a fool like you will support him because your education is fit to be flushed down the wc.
The more educated fools like you are there in SL the more the land will sink into into the bog that it it is already stranded in.
God grant mercy to fools.
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Kalu Nangi / January 11, 2018
JVP should thank the UNP for remaining silent about their past drenched in blood in spite of all the mud thrown at the UNP. How many youth were lead astray by the JVP? How many innocent men and women were brutally murdered for the sake of a philosophy. No one can forget that! Give them power and it will be worse than being ruled by a Dictator.
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Edward / January 11, 2018
Do not forget that the President was the person who ordered the dissolution of Parliment in 2015 thus prevented the publication of the first COPE report. An accessory after that facts, hence an accomplice in the crime. he cannot say that he was unaware of the scam. After the elections, he installs the very same persons in the same positions, paving the way for subsequent scams or robbery. |Who is the HORA
GOD SAVE US
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K.Pillai / January 11, 2018
All over the world coalition governments have become more and more difficult to muster particularly if there are list MPs. Extensive negotiations take place with most details thrashed out. For example Germany still has a caretaker government.
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The present GoSL is a new phenomena. The coalition partners are of approximately of equal strength. The coalition was a gamble to topple the previous regime and it won! Surprisingly it has survived three years and now cracks are showing.
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Unwittingly we may have hit on a satisfactory model. The sides will provide the much needed checks and balances. We can improve the model using good and bad experiences. It will be worth banning opportunistic cross-overs.
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The article calls the present situation as “Yahalpalanaya in crisis”. Perhaps it is a sensationalising overstatement. We are tired of living with corruption
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MS has a chance to usher in a coalition regime and guide it in the right direction.
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We must encourage him to seek a second term.
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thrishu / January 11, 2018
MS should not have trusted a weasel. Now MS also stained with the smell; stink everywhere wherever these useless polly-tikkos go or whatever they touch. Goodbye Yahalupalanaya and asset stripping by UNP Royalist Crooks.
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thrishu / January 11, 2018
RW may think that he has done well at the parliament with his smoke screen statement, but the fact of the matter is that through his conduct at the parliament, he has demonstrated to the world that he is the guilty one. Making such noises and creating sabotage at the parliament will not cover up his misdeeds.
The point at issue was the Bond Scam Report where Ranil was formally reported as complicit. CB activity prior to 2015 was not in the Report’s remit. Besides Ranil had 3-full years to make complaint if pre-2015 CB management and political leaders had mismanaged, and if they had then to take legal action against them; but nothing of that sort happened. Now he cannot just stand up and make unproven, unilateral statements to cover up his own guilt using pariamentary privileges. Again he is falling into his own pit that he dug for others.
PM thinks he is smart and stolen the thunder, but actually he is a fool that any intelligent person could see; just a listless crab dancing until the pot boils. The people will sort him out this time.
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Buddhist / January 11, 2018
MS’s acts can be compared to the acts of US President Trump. Their decisions are based on what the public opinion is, what media and news papers say about them. They are manipulated by the media and it appears that they do not care what they promised during the election campaign once they were elected. The major media who manipulate him are Island, Ada Derana and Sirasa.
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Mallaiyuran / January 12, 2018
The mighty Tamil leader had stopped from 1983 the parliamentary rowdies of SWRDs, JRs, Old Royals and the New Royals celebrating their annual festival called Pogroms on the roads of Tamil neighborhoods. Then they celebrated it in 2008 & 2009 on vast spaces of Kudumpi Malai and Wanni, on about 200,000 Tamil poor people life, with the help of 32 nations. But even that was stopped after that, by the IC. The festivity deprived, the so called “lawless rowdy lawmakers” went inside the parliament to discuss something called “Central Bank Looting”. It was they started to celebrate how they had been celebrating these annual pogrom festivals. Looting, murdering, arson, raping………. These angels, whom Buddha should never had allowed to step on the street of a civilized world’s soil, but had appointed to guard his doctrines, has no way to be fixed, unless China expedite buying the lands quickly and bring its communism to pass its own Tiananmen Square justice over these. Now the mighty Tamil leader confined the pogroms to be inside the parliaments from where the Lankawe political leaders has been organizing to advance their looting murders and rapes.
It the British government should be sued for knowingly enslaving Tamils on vain state locked into the hands these animals. It is to this spice, which British local administrators kept out of all legally functioning workplaces, British Government handed over the power, hoping to control the Trinco Harbor. This is the crowd was agitated to agile state , by another equally qualified and certified group called Colombo Media by staging a drama of that two Tamils had robbed the Central Bank. When they went inside with poisoned opium fed by Colombo Media, they naturally let the world see it nakedly.
It is out of this magic hat, the magician Sampanthar is saying bringing out his magic called Secret Solution and he wants the Tamils to believe and wait.
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