General elections on April 25, dissolution on March 2
Parliamentary elections are to be held on April 25 after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolves Parliament at midnight on March 2.
Nominations will be called by the Elections Commission between March 12 and 19.
These dates emerged as the ruling alliance led by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna ( SLPP) registered it for a second time with the National Election Commission. If the previous one was the SLPP as a political party, the second registration is together with a list of political parties that will form the Sri Lanka Nidhahas Podujana Sandanaya, that too with the Pohottuwa ( budding lotus flower) as its symbol.
With this new arrangement, the SLPP- led alliance is now set for the polls. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP), this week agreed, that it would also contest under the Pohottuwa symbol.
SLFP leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena has consequently accepted the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has been given the titular position of chairman of the new alliance.
The Natioal Election Commission members headed by Mahinda Deshapriya met officials who will function as Returning Officers, thus launching one of the major moves for the polls.
A government source said yesterday that April 25 was the earliest date in view of the Muslim month of Ramadan and the Vesak festival thereafter.
There will be no move to withdraw from the US- backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, told the Sunday Times yesterday adding that there has been a “lot of confusion” over the matter.
“Our immediate priority,” he said, “is to withdraw Sri Lanka from being a co-sponsor of the resolution.” That is on the grounds that such a ‘ co- sponsorship’ has not been approved by either the Cabinet of Ministers or endorsed by the Parliament. “Even former President Maithripala Sirisena has told us that he was not consulted by then Foreign Minister Mangala Samarawe e r a , b e f o re he announced the co- sponsorship when the resolution was moved by the United States. This has caused irreparable harm to the country and shown our troops in bad light, he added. The fact that the government was considering pulling out of the co-sponsorship was reported in these columns.
Mangala Samaraweera tweeted yesterday that “Sri Lanka’s great leap backwards: Within the first 100 days of the GR regime the economy is in shambles, reconciliation in tatters and now with the withdrawal of the Geneva 30/ 1 we face international isolation and pariah status.”
Minister Gunawardena leaves for Geneva on Tuesday and will place the new government’s case before the Human Rights Council. Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinha left for Geneva on Friday.
“There has been a lot of confusion over a so-called withdrawal from the resolution (30/),” the Foreign Relations Minister pointed out. In the light of a moratorium last year on matters relating to the resolution, he said, there will be no voting when the UN Human Rights Council discusses the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Such voting will come only next year when the moratorium ends and the resolution comes up again, he said.
“At that point of time,” he told the Sunday Times, “what we want to do is make a declaration that we want the closure of the resolution on the grounds that it violated Sri Lanka’s constitution.” He said the fact that over 50 percent of Sri Lankans voted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to office endorsed this. Minister Gunawardena revealed that he had met the Colombo envoys of member countries that adopted the resolution and told them about this proposed closure on the grounds that neither the Cabinet nor Parliament has given sanction to such a move.
“It must, however, not be mistaken as our refusal to work with the United Nations, the Human Rights Council and all other UN agencies. There will be no change in such practices. Our troops will serve in UN peacekeeping forces among other matters, he added.
A UN official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity from Geneva, clarified the issue further by saying
“there is no provision or procedures in the UNHRC system to withdraw a resolution moved by one country being dismissed by another. The only way is to defeat the resolution by a vote which requires the majority support of member countries.” Elaborating on this aspect, a diplomatic source in Colombo said such an intended withdrawal, however, does not preclude member countries from moving another resolution. However, that too would require majority vote.
Foreign Relations Minister Gunawardena said that “this is the first time the UNHCR has adopted a country specific resolution. That by itself is an insult to an independent and sovereign nation.”
In a copy of an Advance Unedited Version of the report ahead of the Council sessions, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR) says among its conclusions:
“The High Commissioner is concerned that the failure to ensure accountability for past violations and to undertake comprehensive security sector reform to dismantle the structures that facilitated them, means that the people of Sri Lanka, from all communities, have no guarantee that violations will not recur. Such failure alienates victims and their communities, instilling distrust in the State, and can potentially fuel further cycles of violence.
“The High Commissioner urges the Government to promptly investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture and other gross human rights violations, and to give the highest priority to ensuring accountability for long-standing emblematic cases.
“The High Commissioner encourages the Government to urgently proceed with the review and repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and to engage with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and the United Nations, as well as with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, in finalizing a new legislation that is compliant with international human rights norms and standards. “
The Foreign Relations Ministry in Colombo said it wants “to declare the Government’s commitment to achieve sustainable peace through an inclusive, domestically designed and executed reconciliation and accountability process, including through the appropriate adaptation of existing mechanisms, in line with the Government’s policy framework.
“This would comprise the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) headed by a Justice of the Supreme Court, to review the reports of previous Sri Lankan COIs which investigated alleged violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law ( IHL), to assess the status of implementation of their recommendations and to propose deliverable measures to implement them keeping in line with the new Government’s policy.”