Category: Featured Headlines

Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage today (02) ordered the acquittal of Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen, who was named a suspect in a case filed over Easter Sunday terror attacks, from the case in accordance with the instructions of the Attorney General.

The magistrate issued the order when the magisterial inquiry related to the case was taken up again today.

The former Minister and Wanni District Parliamentarian was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka Police on 24 April 2021 and remanded under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for over six months until he was granted bail on 14 October 2021.

Sri Lanka’s inflation slowed in October for the first time in a year as shortages of food and fuel eased.

The consumer price index in the capital Colombo cooled to 66% from a year ago, the statistics department said in a statement Monday. That’s down from 69.8% in September and a median of 68.5% in a Bloomberg survey.

Transport costs stood at 150.4% and food prices came in at 94.9%, the data showed.

The numbers are a welcome development for Sri Lanka’s monetary authority, which expected inflation to peak this month. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has kept the benchmark rate steady at 15.5% for the last two meetings after hiking borrowing costs by 9.5 percentage points this year. The next monetary policy review is scheduled for November 24.

Falling global commodity prices, assistance from friendly countries and re-purposed funds from multilateral lenders have helped Sri Lanka stabilize its finances in the short run. Supplies of food, fuel and medicines are trickling in as officials pursue a debt restructuring deal with global creditors, that’s key to unlock the International Monetary Fund’s $2.9 billion bailout package.

A proposal by Sri Lanka’s minister of justice for a special committee in parliament on election reforms is being challenged by the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) which claims that the proposal is an attempt to delay elections.

SJB general secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara speaking at an event said on Monday October 31 claimed that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had given an assurance to ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) legislators that elections will not be held.

“We are working against the president’s plan,” said Madduma Bandara.

The MP said his party plans to educate the public and raise the matter in and outside parliament to “hold elections and protect democracy”.

His SJB colleague MP S M Marikkar said at a different event that the SJB will take to the streets if elections are postponed.

“We will get on the streets to send both President Wickremesinghe and the government home, secure an election, and form a government,” said Marikkar.

The MP also claimed that the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and other international organisations have said they will assist Sri Lanka in debt restructuring after the people have elected a government.

There is no evidence, however, that any of those institutions have laid down a condition that elections be held in order to receive assistance in debt restructuring.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst currency crisis in decades, and the IMF has reached a staff level agreement with the government on a 2.9 billion US dollar bailout package if Sri Lanka successfully restructures its debt.

“Without [holding an election], we cannot overcome this crisis. We ask the president not to bring in false committees to postpone elections,” said Marikkar.

Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena last week that a special parliamentary committee be appointed to propose electoral reforms for local government bodies, provincial councils and parliament and recommend a homogeneous system for all three, reports said

A parliamentary election in the island nation is not due till 2024. But the president may dissolve parliament and call an early election from March 2023. The recently passed 21st amendment to the constitution has retained the president’s power to dissolve parliament two and a half years after its commencement.

The opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) too has called for elections. Former JVP MP K D Lal Kantha speaking at a rally said the government is not going for elections because it knows it doesn’t stand a chance.

State Minister Shantha Bandara speaking to reporters on Monday claimed that the opposition is demanding elections to destabilise Sri Lanka’s economic recovery by signalling to the world and to potential foreign investors that a change in government is due next year.

The SLPP’s popularity has waned considerably since the popular people’s protests that erupted in Sri Lanka in April this year over the country’s currency crisis. A wave of protests around the country saw the ouster of then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was succeeded by President Wickremesinghe – a former arch rival – with the unlikely support of 134 SLPP legislators.

Opposition parties have claimed that, in return for their support, Wickremesinghe offered sanctuary to the almost universally reviled SLPP and a delay in elections.

However, the government’s approval rating under Wickremesinghe had moved up to 10 per cent in October 2022 from 3 per cent in June, a survey by Verité Research, a Colombo-based think tank found.

Meanwhile, Palitha Range Bandara, the general secretary of the United National Party (UNP) – the party Wickremesinghe leads and is represented in parliament by a solitary MP, has said Wickremesinghe is not in it to do anyone’s bidding.

Sri Lanka is unlikely to get an International Monetary Fund deal in December as originally expected with delays in dealing with China and India which are out of the Paris Club as well as ‘bilateral issues’, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said.

Sri Lanka has to get ‘creditor assurances’ on debt restructuring from bilateral lenders before the IMF’s executive board endorses a reform program formally.

Unlike other countries which got into default, two out of three main creditors of Sri Lanka were out of the Paris Club of creditors who had already had a well-oiled mechanism for dealing with debt re-structuring.

“I first went to the Paris Club where all the creditors were from the West and Japan,” President Wickremesinghe told a forum of tea factory owners in Colombo.

“However, we are in a unique position today where out of our three main creditors, only one belongs to the Paris Club. Japan.

“The other two are not in the Paris Club. They are India and China.”

He said China started debt restructuring with Zambia.

There were also ‘bilateral issues’ to deal with, he said without elaborating.

“I think India has it for the first time with Sri Lanka,” President Wickremesinghe said. “I have already started discussions with Japan and now with India and China.

“We get down to a common platform of how we can resolve it while we also have discussions on bilateral issues that affect each other’s countries.”

China has just finished its party conference where senior officials had change.

“If we can move and come to an agreement by December, which means coming to an agreement by mid-November, and going up to the IMF Board in mid-December, we will gain a big advantage,” Wickremesinghe said.

“However, I don’t know whether we can do it for the simple reason that in China, the focus has started now after the party conference. However, we must aim to have it by January.”

Sri Lanka IMF deal nod could be Jan 2023

Sri Lanka however has made most of the corrections required to regain monetary stability.

Balance of payments troubles are problem associated with reserve collecting central bank which mis-target interest rates with printed money through a policy rate incompatible with domestic credit trends. Active open market operations were begun by the Federal Reserve in the process of triggering the Great Depression in the 1920s.

When a country with a central bank with a history of chronic mistargeting of rates – Sri Lanka had gone to the IMF 16 times before – gets market access its tends to default.

The key reason third world countries get into balance of payments trouble is money printed to keep policy rates too low by soft-pegged central bankers which fires unsustainable credit and balance of payments deficits.

Sri Lanka has also raised taxes to reduce central government credit and hike tariffs of public utilities to reduce or eliminate their borrowings.

The central bank has also lost the ability to intervene and sterilize interventions with new money after the intervention effectively losing its ability to generate BOP deficits from around August.

Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani Leader MP C.V. Wigneswaran said that Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms President’s Counsel (PC) Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had informed him that the Government hopes to release more prisoners detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA) by Thai Pongal of next year in January.

Speaking to The Morning, Wigneswaran said yesterday (31) that he had met Dr. Rajapakshe in Jaffna on 30 October, and during the meeting, he was told that more PTA prisoners are expected to be released by Thai Pongal next year.

“I requested to release all the others. They have not been happy about it because they have been there for a long period of time. Then, he said that they are interested in releasing the prisoners but that there are various legal snags which they are discussing with the Attorney General’s Department. By Thai Pongal, they are hoping to release as many as possible out of the detained balance. Maybe a substantial number would be released around Thai Pongal,” he added.

Wigneswaran further stated that Dr. Rajapakshe had pointed out that there was no backlash from the perspective of the Sinhalese with regard to those who had been already released.

“I pointed out to them that the ‘aragalaya’ (struggle) had changed the attitude and mindset of the Sinhalese. This is a welcome sign because people feel that after 13 years of the end of the war, they are being given a chance to get back to their lives,” he added.

Some family members of the PTA prisoners and detainees also came to speak to Dr. Rajapakshe during this meeting, he said.

“There was a sister of a person who was taken into custody when he was 16-years-old whereas now he is 44-years-old. Therefore, he had been in prison for 28 years. She made an appeal to release him as he had not seen the outside world for a long period. Sometimes, it was a little emotional the way they were making their pleas to the Minister. There was a prisoner who was released after 25 years. He came from Vavuniya just to thank Minister Rajapakshe. There were other family members of the PTA prisoners as well,” he added.

Meanwhile, a total of eight prisoners convicted by court for involvement in the activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) under the PTA were pardoned by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, nearing the Deepavali festival. Earlier, Wigneswaran wrote to President Wickremesinghe with the relevant details of the PTA prisoners and detainees requesting to consider their release.

A police sergeant has died after he was assaulted by villagers during a heated situation in Kebithigollewa area, Anuradhapura last night (Oct. 31).

The incident occurred when several police officers of the Kebithigollewa police were on their way to the Rambakapuwewa area of Kebithigollewa following a report that a woman had died after being attacked by a wild elephant.

When the police officers arrived at the location, at least 100 people including a Buddhist monk had blocked the road.

A tense situation then ensued as the group of individuals wielding clubs attacked the police officers.

The police officers have fired shots in the air to take the situation under control. However, a police sergeant sustained critical injuries after one of the villagers attacked him with a club.

He was rushed to the Kebithigollewa Hospital and transferred to the Anuradhapura Hospital where he has succumbed to his injuries, the Police Media Spokesperson’s Office said.

The 54-year-old sergeant attached to the Kebithigollewa Police was a resident of Wariyapola area. His body is currently lying in the Medawachchiya Hospital.

The police said a Buddhist monk and four others were arrested in connection with the death of the police officer.