The religion of anti-corruption in Thailand 

and looking to China

The Nation:

-By Bangkok Pundit Sep 08, 2014

The new prime minister, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, was yesterday urged to emulate the Chinese president’s policy of cracking down on corruption seriously and without exceptions, as part of his government’s fight against graft. 

The Religion of Anti-corruption in Thailand and Looking to China by Thavam

Cure for Ebola? Vaccine protects monkeys for 10 months

MONDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2014

A working Ebola vaccine has moved one step closer after scientists found that an experimental drug protected monkeys from the disease for 10 months.

The results of the drug tests raise hopes that a vaccine could be found to help resolve the Ebolacrisis in West Africa. Human trials on the experimental jab started in the US last week and are due to begin in the UK and Africa.

The new study found that the vaccine works for five weeks, but after that, the protection begins to wane. Researchers tried injecting a booster jab and found that this extended protection to 10 months.

"After the boost, protection is not only stronger but also longer-lasting," said Daniel De Schryver, a spokesperson for one of the drug companies testing the vaccine.

Human trials are currently using one vaccine, but there are plans to test booster jabs as well.

Lockdown

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 2,000 people have been killed and more than 4,000 infected by the virus since the outbreak in March.

The Ebola outbreak was first identified in Guinea in March and has since spread across Liberia and Sierra Leone. Later this month the authorities in Sierra Leone are ordering people to stay inside their homes for three days to help stop the spread of the disease.

US President Barack Obama said at the weekend that America would offer more help to help control the outbreak. He said: "If we don't make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there's the prospect then that the virus mutates.

"It becomes more easily transmittable, And then it could be a serious danger to the United States", he added.

The United Nations says more than $600 million in supplies are needed in West Africa.

Diet options for type 2 diabetes: eating plans can vary, study suggests

Diet options for type 2 diabetes: eating plans can vary, study suggests

Lori Cheezem

By M Tyler, Sep 2, 2014

There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to a diet that can prevent and control type 2 diabetes, a recent study suggests.

A review of randomized clinical trials and observational studies on diabetes and nutrition revealed that certain dietary patterns, regardless of weight loss, could help stave off the condition, as well as manage current symptoms better than other diets.

"We undertook this review because we believe that most of the current dietary guidelines for patients with diabetes do not reflect recent evidence," said Osama Hamdy, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Director of Joslin Diabetes Center's Obesity Clinical Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Nutrition can be used as a medicine to prevent and control diabetes in a very effective way."

What should you be eating?

A major finding that is consistent with most research on the topic suggests that a Mediterranean diet, which is rich in whole grains, leafy vegetables and olive oil, is related to a lower risk of diabetes development, even without weight loss. This connection remained intact even when calories were not restricted, the authors found.

Other specific diets that proved beneficial for diabetes prevention and management included low-carbohydrate or low glycemic index diets, which were linked to a lower risk for cardiovascular disease.

Specific foods that were associated with reduced type 2 diabetes risk included leafy green vegetables, oat cereal, yogurt, walnuts, apples, and coffee.

Appropriate healthy fat intake, too, was found to be associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk.

"When people started eating less fat, they compensated by eating more refined carbohydrates, which stimulate insulin secretion and increase fat deposition," said Dr. Hamdy.

Findings of the study are published in Lancet.

Source: Joslin Diabetes Center

பிடித்துச் சென்றவர்களிடமே விசாரணை வேண்டுமா? 

07 செப்ரெம்பர் 2014, ஞாயிறு

சட்டமில்லாத நாட்டிலே சட்டத்தரணியாக இருப்பதற்கு நான் வெட்கப்படுகின்றேன் என தமிழ் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் எம்.ஏ சுமந்திரன் தெரிவித்தார்.

அண்மையில் வவுனியாவில் இடம்பெற்ற நிகழ்வு ஒன்றில் கலந்து கொண்டு உரையாற்றும் போதே அவர் மேற்கண்டவாறு தெரிவித்தார்.

அவர் மேலும் தெரிவிக்கையில்,

இந்த நாட்டில் சட்டத்தரணியாக இருப்பது மிகவும் அவமானத்துக்கு உரிய விடயம். வெட்கித் தலைகுனிய வேண்டிய நிலையில் உள்ளோம். சட்டமில்லாத நாட்டில் சட்டத்தரணி இவர் என்று கூறக்கூடிய நிலையில் நான் உங்கள் முன் நிற்கின்றேன்.

காணாமல் போனவர்கள் என்ற பிரச்சினை கடந்த மூன்று தசாப்தங்களுக்கு மேல் இருக்கவில்லை. ஆனால் இன்று நவீனகாலத்தில் தான் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது. இதற்குக் காரணம் ஆட்சியாளர்களே அவர்களைப் பிடித்து தடுத்து வைத்து அல்லது கொலை செய்துவிட்டு தெரியாது என கைவிரிக்கின்றனர்.

இன்று இலங்கையில் இது மிகப்பெரிய பிரச்சினை . எந்த ஆட்சியாளர்கள் அவர்களை பிடித்துச் சென்றார்களோ அவர்களிடம் சென்று நீதி கேட்டால் நீதி கிடைப்பது என்பது முடியாத விடயம். ஆகவே இதற்கு பொறுப்புக் கூறவேண்டியவர்களே ஆட்சியில் தொடர்ந்தும் இருந்தால் எப்படி எமது உறவுகளை கண்டு பிடித்து தருவார்கள்?

ஆனால் அவர்கள் எங்கு இருக்கின்றார்கள் என்று அவர்களுக்கு தெரியும் . ஆளும் அரசு நினைத்தால் இன்றே தடுத்து வைத்து வைத்திருப்பவர்களை விடுதலை செய்ய முடியும் என்றார்.

- See more at: http://onlineuthayan.com/News_More.php?id=662943404307347207#sthash.MFWPPadV.dpuf

Sri Lanka:TID terrorises Tamil Catholic Priests In Jaffna-

Sri Lanka: Playground for anti Muslim forces>>

[Fishermen in Jaffna; CMIC photo]-06/09/2014
Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), in recent days has been monitoring, intimidating and ‘interrogating’Tamil Catholic priests, who have been with their people in Vanni during and before the genocidal onslaught on Vanni, reports Tamil Net.

The report further says:

One of the six priests, who were detained in military-controlled barbed-wire camps in Menik Farm in 2009, Fr. A. Anton Stephen, was questioned by the TID officers at the Bishop’s House as the TID of the occupying Colombo was speculating that he is one of the key witnesses submitting an eyewitness account to the three member OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) panel tasked to produce a report on the investigation process in Sri Lanka after collecting direct reports from individuals, organisations and governments.

Fr Anton Stephen, who is the parish priest of The Holy Family Church at Malvam, situated near Uduvil in Valikaamam, Jaffna, was summoned for an interrogation-styled interview by the Sri Lankan TID at the Bishop’s House on Tuesday.

The parish priest was questioned on what he had witnessed during the final days of war. The interrogation was based on his poetry. But, they were also questioning him on whether he was in touch with external actors who were seeking information on the final days of Vanni war.

Anonymous callers believed to be SL TID operatives have been harassing Fr Stephen on his phone line and all the movements of a section of Catholic priests, who were earlier in the war zone, are being systematically monitored and their phones are being tapped, the source further told TamilNet.

On August 20, the SL TID interrogated another priest, Fr. Maulis, who was in Vanni before the genocidal onslaught. The SL TID was intimidating the priest with an allegation of investigating ‘LTTE connection’ when he served in Vanni, the Bishop’s House source further said. Fr. Maulis is the parish priest of St. Thomas Church in Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi in Jaffna.

Both the priests have refused to talk to media, journalists in Jaffna said.

The Three Musketeers: Debutante Celebrations Galore Champika, Sajith And Anura Kumara

By Kumar David -September 7, 2014 

Prof. Kumar David

There have been three grand coming-out events in the last 12 months. To be a more precise two debut-balls and in the case of Sajith a still ongoing feud whether to anoint him Deputy Leader or let him languish outside Uva for a little longer. The guy is hogging headlines and some, more outside than within the UNP, are excited by a youthful pretender. For the record, all three bambinos are under 50, their birth years: Champika 1965, Sajith 1967 and Anura Kumara 1968. Obama was just 44 when first elected but belongs to a different rank. Nevertheless, the fate of these three will give telescopic insight of things to come and the political playing field in the next decade. Ranil, Rajapakse, Dead Left and Sambanthan are jointly and severally well past their useful shelf-life. Indeed the conjoint age of DEW, Tissa, Vasu, Ranil, Mahinda and Sampanthan exceeds four and a half centuries, reaching deep back into the mid-Portuguese period in the history of this country!

In Alexander Dumas’ novel, D’Artagnan is not one of the three; an outsider, a country bumpkin who travelled to Paris to join the high stakes game with Athos, Porthos and Aramis: “All for One! One for All!” So that myth holds too! The fourth of this generational cluster, the Tamil Prabaharan, was an outsider to this same Sinhala nationalist battle cry that binds Champika, Sajith and Anura Kumara.

AKD

We are on the brink of a profound generational shift in political leadership, most obviously on the left. Dead Left leaders hanging on with a tenacity that perks, privileges and portfolios alone can explain have obstructed a next-generation which may challenge them, albeit at the gates of the morgue. Secondly, leadership in the small-left is barren, a desert as dry as the Kalahari. There are a dozen minuscule entities with ‘Socialist’ or ‘Revolutionary’ or an equivalent on their name boards, but no leader of national stature and none likely to gain that stature. Speaking candidly, and with no bias one way or the other, it is a walkover for the JVP on the left; a takeover of the whole left space just for the asking. Will it still manage to screw up the opportunity anyway? I am not sure, but it seems so far so good with Anura Kumara. (This should not be read as uncritical endorsement, which is a separate matter from objective evaluation of prospects). Does anyone see a credible alternative challenger to share mass left-space with the JVP?                                Read More

Lanka Left In The Lurch by Rajan Philips

Tampoe’s last march, the death of Sam Wijesinha, and -06/09/2014 
The week belonged to BalaTampoe, to the honouring of one of Lanka’s most unique post-independence personas, who passed away on September 1, which ironically is Labour Day in some western countries that do not celebrate May Day because of its revolutionary connotations. On May Day this year, Mr. Tampoe was photographed taking a pillion ride on a motorbike to address the CMU May Day rally.
Lanka Left in the Lurch by Rajan Philips by Thavam

Janaka Perera Assassination And The Patriotic Card

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Traitors should be given capital punishment.”

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (The Island – 6.5.2010)

( September 7, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A former LTTE colonel who pleaded guilty for the assassination of Major General Janaka Perera was given a 20-year prison sentence this week. 

General Perera was murdered by a Tiger suicide bomber in 2008. A popular figure with Sinhala extremists because of his role in the long Eelam War and his hardline political views, he joined the UNP in 2008 and was made the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the North Central Province. The UNP lost but General Perera topped the overall preference vote count.

1. Janaka Perera Assassination and the Patriotic Card by Thavam

UGC Should No Longer Delay An Inquiry Into Jaffna Uni Issues: JUSTA

September 7, 2014 

The Jaffna University Science Teachers Association (JUSTA) has called upon the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman to desist from delaying the holding of an impartial inquiry into the issues within the University any longer, if the establishment is to serve its academic purpose.

SB – Minister Higher Education

Releasing a statement in response to the letter sent by Jaffna University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam to the Higher Education Ministry Secretary concerning the issues highlighted by JUSTA in their report titled ‘Discriminating against Excellence’, the academics have pointed out that the VC has only engaged in a clever word-play to reject the allegations that have been leveled at the university administration particularly concerning rampant favoritism in awarding appointments.

The JUSTA report titled ‘Discriminating against excellence’, the academics noted ‘blatant and endemic’ abuse across several university departments and units in the selection of academic and non-academic staff.

Prof Arasaratnam however has rejected the allegations stating they have always selected the most suitable candidates for each position by evaluating them with an objective marking scheme and by following procedure recommended by the UGC.

But JUSTA has pointed out that the UGC circular 935 that the VC has repeatedly referred to, in her response to the Secretary, has in fact been subverted to advance blatant favoritism.

“We urge an inquiry into our charges as promised by the UGC Chairman and it should no longer be delayed,” the academics have remarked while adding they are prepared to lead evidence at an impartial inquiry.

                                          Read More

The Struggle For Land And Beyond

By Waruni Karunarathne

 Sunday, September 07, 2014

With the upcoming UN Human Right Council sessions, issues of the Tamils in the North especially related to land and militarisation are back on the table among other heated issues. While the government assures that adequate measure have been taken to address the burning issues of the Tamil people in the North, many Tamil political parties have been levelling allegations against the government and the military for land grabbing and continuing to operate military establishments in the North.

The Struggle for Land and Beyond by Thavam

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Urged to raise Protection for Witnesses to UN War Crimes Investigation on Sri Lanka: TGTE

Sunday, 07 September 2014 

In an appeal to the Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran has urged the Japanese leader to raise with Sri Lankan President the issue of protection for witnesses who will be testifying before a UN inquiry for the mass killing of Tamils.

Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shinzō Abe begins his visit to Sri Lanka on September 7, 2014.

The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will also emphasize this issue during his upcoming address to the current UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva on September 8, 2014. Advance copy of his statement sent by OHCHR Civil Society Section says the following:

“Moreover, I attach great importance to the investigation on Sri Lanka mandated by this council, on which OHCHR will report later this session. I encourage the Sri Lankan authorities to cooperate with this process in the interest of justice and reconciliation. I am alarmed at threats currently being leveled against the human rights community in Sri Lanka, as well as prospective victims and witnesses. I also deplore recent incitement and violence against the country’s Muslim and Christian minorities.”

The UN Human Rights Council in its March 2014 Session created an investigative body on Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government has taken a hostile attitude towards this UN investigation and some Cabinet Ministers have warned anyone from testifying before this UN body.

"Several Tamils who are either victims or witnesses are eager to testify to seek justice for the killing of their family members or for the mass killing of Tamils" said Mr. Rudrakumaran.

"As one of the few world leaders to visit Sri Lanka since the creation of the UN investigative body, you have enormous opportunity and responsibility to urge Sri Lankan President not to harm Tamils who testify before this UN body" continued Mr. Rudrakumaran.

"There are also concerns that the Sri Lankan Security forces may target the relatives of the witnesses."

“There are 90,000 Tamil war widows in Sri Lanka and we urge you to meet some of them to understand the gravity of abuses committed against Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government and the plight of Tamils” said Mr. Rudrakumaran.

According to United Nations Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka over 70,000 Tamils were killed in five months in early 2009 and Tamil women were sexually abused and raped by the Sri Lankan Security Forces. This UN investigation is about these crimes and other abuses.

BACKGROUND:

Tamils have faced repeated mass killings since 1958 and the mass killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of killings.

According to the report by this UN Panel, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed and women were sexually abused and raped by the Sri Lankan Security Forces (According to UN Internal Review Report over 70,000 Tamils were killed in five months in 2009).

These Tamils were killed due to deliberate and intense shelling and bombing of areas designated by the government as "no-fire zones", where Tamil civilians had assembled for safety. The Sri Lankan Government also restricted food and medicine for Tamils, resulting in large numbers of people dying from starvation and many of the injured bleeding to death.

According to the UN Panel, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

According to a May 2012 report by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy; there are up to 90,000 Tamil war widows in the North-East of Sri Lanka.

UN Human Rights Council in March 2014 established an international war crimes investigation to investigate these killings and the investigations have begun.

A Buddhist Monk shot and killed a Sri Lankan Prime Minister over 56 years ago (in 1958) for having talks with Tamil political leaders to find a solution to the conflict.

Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community. According to several sources, Tamil areas have the highest concentration of security forces in the world (Ratio: For every five civilian one military).

Tamils overwhelmingly voted in a Parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.

ABOUT TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries. TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.

TGTE held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 132 Members of Parliament and is leading a campaign to realize Tamils’ political aspirations through peaceful, diplomatic and democratic means.

TGTE has a bicameral legislature and a Cabinet and held one of its Parliamentary sittings in the British Parliament. The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means.

Sri Lanka’s Discourse On The Rule Of Law !

By R.M.B Senanayake -September 7, 2014 

R.M.B. Senanayake

A few days ago the OPA held a seminar on the Rule of Law. Eminent lawyers Mr. Upul Jayasuriya and J.C Weliamuna and Human Rights Commissioner Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa spoke on the current state of the Rule of Law.

The concept of the Rule of Law arose during ancient times. It was there even in the Code of Hammurabi. Aristotle said more than two thousand years ago, “The rule of law is better than that of any individual.” The ancient Romans raised the question “who is to “guard the guardians”? What if those who are appointed to guard us misbehave and deprive us of our freedom. They came up with the principle of the Rule of Law. “We are free because we live under civil laws.” — said Montesquieu later on. In Plato’s dialogue, the Athenian Stranger declares that a city will enjoy safety and other benefits of the gods where the law “is despot over the rulers, and the rulers are slaves of the law.” In other words, the ruler and his retinue as well as government officials are to be the servants and not the masters of society and the Law should be supreme.

But that is only as far as the concept is concerned. In practice both in the East and the West it was not adopted for the ruler was king and had a plenitude of power. He would not easily part with any of his powers. The first manifestation of the Rule of Law over the Rule of the Ruler was with the Magna Carta of 1215 when the barons forced the King to sign up the Charter promising to govern according to the Law limiting the use of discretion. King John agreed to give up rule at his discretion and to govern according to the law. It guaranteed certain liberties to the people for example by explicitly accepting that no “freeman” (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land. Clause 61, established a committee of 25 barons who could at any time meet and overrule the will of the King if he violated the provisions of the Charter, seizing his castles and possessions if it was considered necessary. This practice was known as distraint, but it was the first time it had been applied to a monarch. But King John had no intention to be bound by it. The Pope Innocent III ruled that the King was not bound by the oath to uphold the Charter since it was forced upon the King by violence and fear.” He rejected any call for restraints on the King, saying it impaired John’s dignity. So England was plunged into war with the failure of the king to abide by the Magna Carta and the barons offered the throne to a Prince from France.                                                        Read More

It Is Time To Cut Down The Banyan Tree

| by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena
Courtesy: Sunday Times 

( September 7, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A common point of agreement across differing views on the role of the Sri Lankan State is that the State (‘authoritarian’ or ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ as the case may be), would at least perform its basic functions. In the alternative, the drivers of state power would be called to account.

But ironically given erstwhile public expectations, the post-war Sri Lankan State has fundamentally withdrawn from its responsibilities. The institution of the Executive Presidency or an ‘authoritarian Centre,’ has not arrested this trend. Rather, the centralization of power in one individual or (as is the unhappy case now) in one political family, is the root cause of a dangerous imbalance of the Centre itself.

Withdrawal of the State

As a bitingly honest critic of JR Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s first elected President said decades ago, ‘this Executive Presidency is like a banyan tree; it affords shelter to vast numbers of sycophants but nothing can grow under it.’ This characterization is truer now than at any other time in the past. Paradoxically, at the very point of the greatest concentration in the Office of the Executive Presidency, we witness a centre of power which has become inherently unstable.

To assert this point is not to focus on the beautification of cities or the construction of highways as the misguided among us would prefer. State functions have a far more extensive reach. Nor is this critique meant to apply only to the fact that basic state facilities such as water and electricity are increasingly available only at a cost, which many Sri Lankans find unable to meet. On the other hand, wasteful expenditure of state funds is paramount. But over and above these concerns, the deep failure of the State in the area of public justice and in the handling of foreign relations is becoming very hard to ignore.

No concept of public wrong

For instance, the edifice of our criminal justice system has been built on the concept of a public offence as a wrong against the State. The essential rationale is that the awful weight of state power will be used to punish the offender. It is not a mere private matter which can be solved through expedient settlements and the like.

However, in a practical sense, this thinking has been stripped of all force. The three-fold function of investigation, prosecution and judicial decision making has been seriously compromised. At the very first stage itself, in what police station in the country would a complaint be recorded against an offender if that person is shielded by political patronage? In fact, as was observed last week, police officers who stand up to political pressure, risk life and limb in the process. Reportedly a ranking senior officer who acted against political compulsions in the wake of the communal violence in Sri Lanka’s South-West some months ago is a recent target of the establishment. This is nothing new.

Equally, in what percentage of cases would the decision to indict be taken by the Department of the Attorney General irrespective of political consequences? We see the very converse, where prosecutorial powers are used as an instrument of political repression against those perceived to be enemies of the regime. This is amply evidenced with the ending of the war. Reportedly the Department will soon be housed in a new office. But the commissioning of magnificent buildings with state funds will not address the inherent question of the failure of justice.

Laughable dramas from a retired Chief Justice

Most recently, the hauling of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka who was impeached and tossed out of office in 2013 before the criminal courts is a good example. These are incidents more worthy of countries that we used to characterize as banana republics. Perhaps we may get accustomed to thinking of Sri Lanka in a similar sense.

Indeed, the less said about the independence of the judiciary, the better. During the past few weeks, laughable dramas were enacted by another retired Chief Justice who seems to be suffering from a perennial deficit of public attention. His appeals to the judges of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court to refrain from acting in accordance with political dictates is incongruous coming from a figure whose term in office witnessed unprecedented public controversy over the politicization of the apex court.

The other example that illustrates the central theme of the column this week is the disastrous handling of Sri Lanka’s foreign relations through monies doled out to Western based lobbying agencies while a professional diplomatic service is abandoned. The central point is that this merry ‘outsourcing’ of foreign relations has little rhyme or reason except to channel commissions into the pockets of some.

Government’s bluster only confirms its power project

This month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee is due to deliberate on the fifth state party report submitted by Sri Lanka under the periodic reporting procedures of a key treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This state party report exemplifies our lack of interest or indeed capacity in dealing with key issues regarding state accountability. Next week’s column will critique its several aspects.

Unlike the politically constituted United Nations Human Rights Council before which resolutions on an international inquiry into the end stages of the war in Sri Lanka are pending, the Committee comprised senior jurists. Our reports to these bodies at least should be handled responsibly. And the Government’s bluster does not go to the heart of the security of the nation-state. Its refusal to enact a right to information (RTI) law, for example, indicates this. The millions paid to foreign lobbying firms to redeem the (unredeemable) image of this administration is only a component of the huge wastage of public funds.

As the State withdraws from its essential functions and systems collapse, we can only pay the ultimate price sooner rather than later. This much seems clear now.

Polls Chief to postpone election if violations continue 

BY NIRANJALA ARIYAWANSHA
 September 7, 2014
The Commissioner of Elections would be forced to postpone the Uva Provincial Council elections if polls law violations continue unabated, Deputy Commissioner of Elections, M. M. Mohamed, told Ceylon Today.
 
Mohamed said although the police were co-operating to control election violations, the number of violations continued to mount.

"Election violations in Uva have increased rapidly. As a result, a free and fair election cannot be held in these conditions. Therefore, the Commissioner told us that if it comes to a point where it is not possible to have a fair election, he would take necessary steps to postpone the election. We hope to hold the elections as scheduled, but the continuous violation of election law is making it extremely difficult," Mohamed said.
 
He would inquire into all election violations and oversee various electoral matters during his tour, the Deputy Commissioner told Ceylon Today.

"I'm also hoping to tour Uva on for three days from tomorrow. This will allow us to see the conditions that are prevailing in the District," Mohamed said.

Additional Commissioner of Elections, R. M. A. L. Ratnayake had already begun an investigative tour in the Uva Province.