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Political Parties should genuinely address sovereign voter proposals at the APC – By Bernard Fernando The ‘All Party Conference’ (APC) aimed at resolving our National issue has come to a grinding halt due to the stubbornness and ‘one -upmanship’ embedded in the DNA of our traditional Political parties. However, the country loving sovereign voters are confident that the reconciliation proceedings can be catalysed by addressing the following Electoral Reforms/System changes with a ‘win-win’ outlook. 1)Allocate seats to People’s Representatives using simple Proportionate arithmetic thereby ensuring ‘Equality of Vote’ as per UN Human Rights Declaration of 1948 and fostering ‘Sri lankan ness’ in the process. 2) Ensure Quality of Peoples’ Representatives by applying a mandatory methodology based on Meritocracy using minimum eligibility criteria and a structured interview marking system applicable to all parties across the board. 3) Abolish existing Preference Voting (‘Manape’) and Mixed Member Voting (MMV) systems together with ‘Cross-over’ ...

Aug 8, 2023 Posted by eLanka admin In Articles Tagged Bernard Fernando, Equality of Vote, Human Rights, Manape, Mixed Member Voting, Parliament, Political Parties, Pradeshiiya Sabha, Sri Lanka, strengthen Provincial Councils

Can we hold ‘Free and Fair Elections’ without ‘System Changes’? – By Bernard Fernando Recently, one of the rare ‘Country –first’ Political Professionals in the current Parliament had suggested to hold both Parliamentary and LG Elections on the same day. May be as an economist he wanted to make the budgetary provision of Rs.10 Bln. more meaningful, productive and cost-effective in the face of the dire human and Financial/economic catastrophe that the country is facing as a ‘Bankrupt Nation’. Further, it may to some extent, justify the estimated Rs.72Bln. earmarked to be spent by contesting political parties for Election campaigning and also save millions of man hours when conducting a laborious country –wide, complex and unrefined Election process that we are saddled with, for the last several decades. However, we as Sovereign voters facing a dire human, financial and economic crisis exhort that it is more fundamental to make critical ...

Mar 9, 2023 Posted by eLanka admin In Articles Tagged Aragalaya, financial, Parliament, Politics, System Changes

Hold General and Local Govt. Elections on the same day after legalising critical system changes – by Bernard Fernando It is very heartening to learn that one of the rare ‘Country –first’ Political Professionals in the current Parliament has suggested to hold both Parliamentary and LG Elections on the same day. May be as an economist he wanted to make the budgetary provision of Rs.10 Bln. more meaningful, productive and cost-effective in the face of the dire human and Financial/economic catastrophe that the country is facing as a ‘Bankrupt Nation’. Further, it may to some extent, justify the estimated Rs.72Bln. earmarked to be spent by contesting political parties for Election campaigning while enabling saving of Millions of man hours lost when conducting a laborious country –wide, complex and unrefined Election process that we are saddled with, at present. Nevertheless, as Sovereign voters we exhort that it is more fundamental to make critical system ...

Jan 21, 2023 Posted by eLanka admin In Articles Tagged Country –first, Election campaigning, Elections, Parliament, Political, System Change

Sri Lanka News September 06th September 2022 – 09th September 2022 brought to you by eLanka (1) The introduction of the Social Security Contribution Tax Bill to Parliament has been postponed until next Thursday. The reason was the opposition raised for it. Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who commented on this, said that although the VAT is 15%, the price of general goods and services through this social security tax increases by almost 20% when VAT is added, and no action has been taken by anyone who created this crisis. The central bank’s entire reserves were emptied. Has any decision been taken regarding Cabral or the Finance Minister? In January 2020, nearly Rs 654 billion was prevented from reaching the treasury. Have decisions been made about them? Due to the delay of the fuel ship, the petroleum corporation has to pay a lot of money to the company. Fertilizer ships have ...

Sep 28, 2022 Posted by eLanka admin In Articles, eLanka news Tagged Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Damita Abeyratne, eLanka, Finance, International Monetary Fund, Parliament, Susil Premajayantha

“A POOR POLITICIAN” – An Introduction by Des Kelly Even my title for this very interesting piece sent in by Christopher Lawton, O.A.M., to me, sounds and looks downright unbelievable. This story is one about the financial fragility of a Sri Lankan Politician of the past, very hard to believe, isn’t it ??. To my mind, a poor politician is so-called because, like em or loathe em, one has to feel sorry for them, if only for the job they choose to do, a job that I would NEVER wish to have for all the tea in China, India, Sri Lanka, in fact, the tea of all these three Countries combined. Politicians, or “Pollies” as they are affectionately known, in Australia, are not born, they are made, (elected by poor less-educated people who choose them to run the Country). 99% of them absolutely spoil it for the Character ...

Sep 3, 2021 Posted by eLanka admin In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Mount Lavinia, Mr Navaratnarajah, Parliament, Richmond College, W.D.S. Abeygunawardena, Wijeyananda Dahanayake