The political opposition in Sri Lanka seems freshly energized if recent events are anything to go by. The UNP has formed some form of a broader opposition coalition through the “Viroda Vipakshaya” and released a draft constitution as a discussion document for public and civil society debate, while the JVP galvanized by the economic issue of the electricity rate hike is seeking to mobilize support. General Fonseka, the united opposition’s presidential candidate in 2010, succeeded in getting his democratic party recognized by the Elections Commission, thereby changing the political opposition landscape at a time when there is considerable speculation in political circles that the proposed 19^th amendment to the constitution will not only reduce the powers of the provincial council but also reduce the presidential term from six years to five years and thereby enable presidential elections early next year, with only a loss of one year in the incumbent’s current term. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rajapakse government has in recent weeks put into high gear its post war Northern or Tamil policy and this policy has been marked by generally trying to reduce the level of devolution that exists in the country under the 13^th amendment. What currently exists as devolution is also only a partial implementation of the 13^th amendment, since in practice neither police nor land powers have been vested with the provinces since the inception of the Councils. However, not satisfied with a de facto arrangement of reducing the powers of the councils, the Administration desires a de jure reduction of devolution granted under the 13^th amendment. Read the rest of this entry »

President Mahinda Rajapakse has announced that elections to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) would be conducted in September this year, ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for November. The media minister, in a post cabinet meeting press conference has confirmed the same.  Prior to the public announcement, political insiders indicate that many private assurances regarding holding the NPC were given to various foreign leaders in return for their political support at crucial times, including to the Japanese and Indian prime ministers, resulting in the former hosting President Rajapakse in Tokyo in style while Sri Lanka’s poor human rights and reconciliation record was being hauled over the coals in Geneva last March and the Indians throwing their considerable political weight behind Sri Lanka hosting the CHOGM, in the face of a spirited attempt by Canada to effect a change, also based on the same human rights and reconciliation issues.

Aside from the political quid pro quos, the Northern Provincial Council and the elections to the same has some serious and significant merits on its own which should figure into government policy making. Read the rest of this entry »

President Mahinda Rajapakse used his speech to the ruling UPFA’s May Day rally to announce a partial revocation of the massive electricity price hike that was announced a couple of weeks earlier. The details of the presidential largess and indeed the revised tariff structure itself will only be clear once consumers receive their April electricity bills in May.

It was however a reasonably satisfying political week or two for the government. Read the rest of this entry »

President Mahinda Rajapakse has been publicly reiterating and recommitting to finally holding the long delayed and often postponed Northern Provincial Council (NPC) elections in September this year, almost four and half years after the war ended in May 2009. Thereafter despite presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections, in 2010 and 2011, various excuses were contrived and trotted out to postpone the holding of the Northern Provincial Council elections, an election the regime is almost guaranteed to lose to the TNA, if even a semblance of a reasonably fair and free election was held.  Read the rest of this entry »