Municipal councilors of Sri Lanka’s financial capital Colombo have selected Vraîe Cally Balthazaar as the city’s mayor through a secret ballot.

After initial protests about whether the ballot should be secret or open, the unanimous decision was made for a secret vote.

Balthazaar received 61 votes, while the opposition candidate Mohammed Riza Zarook received 54 votes. Of the total 117 votes, 2 were rejected.

The council met on Monday (Jun16) for the first time, after months of behind the scenes wrangling for a majority, as the May 6 local government elections gave no clear majority to any one party.

The ruling National People’s Power got the most number of seats, 48, out of 117 seats in the election, but opposition members outweighed this number, preventing the NPP from being independently able to appoint a mayor.

Non-party independent councilors tipped the balance.

Sri Lanka is closely observing the current development of tension in the Middle-East since instability in the region involves greater implications for the country’s economy recovering from the crisis, a source from the Foreign Ministry said.

The global fuel price is the immediate implication for Sri Lanka which completely depends on imports for petroleum requirements.

Global oil prices rose sharply after Israel struck Iran in a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

The price of the benchmark Brent crude rose more than 10 percent, reaching its highest level since January, before losing some gains.

Traders were concerned that a conflict between Iran and Israel could disrupt supplies coming from the energy-rich region, according to the BBC.

Sri Lanka also depends heavily on remittances from its expatriate workers in the region and full – blown tension will hamper work for them.

“If tension eases off in the span of two or three weeks, it will be alright. If tension persists for a prolonged period, it will impact the economy,” the source said.

Besides, Sri Lankan exports such as tea will also be hit badly if tension prevails

Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has issued a renewed and impassioned appeal for justice on behalf of the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings,

accusing the National People’s Power (NPP) government of turning a blind eye to the truth and perpetuating injustice.

Speaking during a solemn service at the 191st Annual Feast of St. Anthony’s Shrine in Kochchikade which was one of the primary sites targeted in the coordinated suicide bombings, the Cardinal lamented the lack of meaningful progress in holding those responsible to account.

The attacks, which shook the nation on 21 April 2019, claimed the lives of over 250 people and injured hundreds more.

He criticised the “haphazard and politicised” investigation, stating that the approach taken by authorities disrespects the memory of the victims and represents an ongoing denial of justice.

Particularly scathing in his remarks was the Cardinal’s disappointment with the current administration led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

He noted that despite public assurances, the Government has failed to establish a long-promised Special Prosecutor’s Office dedicated to the Easter Sunday case, a mechanism widely viewed as essential for ensuring an impartial and focused legal process.

While acknowledging President Dissanayake’s broader efforts to combat corruption, the Cardinal underscored that the unresolved nature of the Easter Sunday investigation remains a profound failure in the state’s responsibility to deliver justice and uphold the rule of law.

The Archbishop also drew attention to alleged attempts by certain elements within the country to derail the investigation.

He referenced an affidavit from a United States Government official that reportedly named several Muslim extremists as the masterminds behind the attacks, details which he insisted should trigger a deeper and more transparent probe, particularly into potential foreign involvement and influence.

Cardinal Ranjith further condemned the failure to act on the over 200 recommendations submitted by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which was appointed to investigate the bombings.

He noted the lack of follow-up as a betrayal by both past and present leaders, highlighting the absence of any systematic implementation of the Commission’s findings.

The Attorney General’s Department also came under fire, with the Cardinal questioning why legal proceedings have not been initiated against several high-ranking former officials, including a former President, Prime Minister, and senior police and intelligence officers — all of whom were flagged by the PCoI for alleged negligence and failure to prevent the attacks.

While the focus was on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s visit to Germany, the Janatha Vimukthi Perauma (JVP) General Secretary, Tilvin Silva, was visiting China to deepen relations between the JVP and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Undertaken on an invitation by the CPC, the visit saw the powerful JVP General Secretary meeting with Zhejiang Province Governor Liu Jie, Deputy Governor Lu Shen, the CPC’s International Department’s South Asian Region Director General Pan Xiu Bin, and other key representatives of the Communist Party of China.

The Sri Lankan delegation comprised Deputy Ministers Eranga Gunasekara and Muneer Mulafer, MPs M. Jegadeeswaran, Deepti Wasalathilake and Dharmapriya Wijesinghe, as well as JVP party members.

The JVP links with China go back to the days of its founder, Rohana Wijeweera, whose favour for the Chinese brand of communism over the Russian style cost him his medical degree he was pursuing at the Lumumba University in Moscow in the early 1960s. Wijeweera had enrolled at the Peoples’ Friendship University, better known as Lumumba University, in 1960 to study medicine in the heady days of communism. He returned to the country on a holiday in 1962, got caught up in the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute raging at the time and decided that the Chinese form of communism was more in line with the teachings of Marx and Lenin.

He returned to Moscow for his academic studies shortly afterward but came back to the country in March 1964 and became closely connected with the Peking (Beijing) Wing of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, becoming the General Secretary of its youth league and a vocal advocate of the party. When he applied for a visa to return to Russia in August of that year, his visa was rejected, thus ending his medical career midway.

After the 1971 insurrection, the then United Front government led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike suspected a Chinese hand in the events that year and closed down the pro-China North Korean embassy in Colombo.

N. Sanmugathasan, a founding leader (general secretary) of the Ceylon Communist Party (CCP) and leader of the CCP (Maoist), a strong critic of Wijeweera, wrote in his memoirs ‘Political Memories of an Unrepentant Communist’ that the JVP insurrection led to a crackdown by the government on Chinese interests in the country, with the Chinese news agency office as well as the Bandaranaike Memorial site, where Chinese engineers and workers were on a project, being raided and hundreds of books of Mao Zedong and his pictures confiscated. In one instance, a bonfire was made of all Chinese literature.

However, before relations between the two countries could run into serious jeopardy, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai wrote to Mrs Bandaranaike, assuring her that the Chinese Government treasured the friendship between our two countries and its right to defend its sovereignty. The offer of an interest-free long-term Rs. Rs.150 million in convertible foreign exchange by China no doubt helped to prevent any diplomatic rupture between the two nations.

Much water has flowed under the diplomatic bridge since 1971, and the visit by the JVP General Secretary at the invitation of the CPC is aimed, no doubt, at expanding Chinese influence in Sri Lanka in the manner in which the government frames its future policies. As the famous Chinese saying goes, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.’

This is not necessarily the first step in relations between the CPC and the JVP, but the recent signing of a collection of still-secret MoUs between the Dissanayake government and the Indian government, including one on defence cooperation, must surely be cause for some concern in Beijing.