Apr 10 (DM) UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe led the party�s preferential votes� list in the Colombo district by obtaining 230,957 votes while Wimal Weerawansa topped the UPFA list with 280,672 votes. In the UPFA list, candidates R. Duminda Silva and Paatali Champika Ranawaka have clinched the second and third slots with 146,336 and 120,333 preferential votes. Besides, Retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka who is in military custody more..

Apr 10 (DM) Several Ministers including Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and Justice Minister Milinda Moragoda have been voted out by people at the general election conducted on April 8. Ministers Amir Ali and Mrs. Farial Ashraff have failed to secure their slots in the preferential votes� lists of Batticaloa and Digamadulla where they contested the polls respectively. more..

Apr 10 (DM) The UNP which yesterday conceded it had suffered a setback at the general election said the party would have to introduce a number of changes. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a news conference the party�s strategy and the organizational structure needed to be changed once the election results were fully reviewed. more..

Apr 10 (DM) The DNA which secured five seats at Thursday�s general election said yesterday it would play a strong and proactive role in parliament while taking measures to expand its alliance. DNA General Secretary Vijitha Herath said the winning of even five seats could be considered a success when taking into account the limited time the party had for campaigning while the DNA leader held in detention. more..

Apr 10 (Island) Former Jaffna district TNA MPs N Sri Kantha and M K Sivajilingam yesterday pledged to continue to espouse the Tamil nationalist cause despite their loss in Thursday�s Parliamentary elections. The two former MPs were among a group of politicians who quit the TNA to form the Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) ahead of the elections. more..

Apr 10 (Island) TNA spokesman, the newly elected Jaffna District MP Suresh Premachendran yesterday said that the majority of the Tamil people in the North and the East had endorsed the TNA manifesto for resolution of the Tamil problem and speedy re-settlement of the IDPs. He blamed the very low voter turnout in the North and the East to the Tamil voters losing faith in the political system and more..

Apr 10 (Island) Fresh polls will be held at thirty four (34) polling booths in the Nawalapitiya electorate at a future date, Kandy district Returning Officer (GA) S. M. Gotabhaya Jayaratne said, yesterday (09). The ballot papers of the 34 polling booths were rejected and were not taken for counting due to complaints of irregularities that had taken place at the booths by unruly elements. more..

Apr 10 (DM) The ruling UPFA yesterday swept to a resounding victory at the general election falling just short of a two-thirds majority, political analysts said. According to the final elections results, the UPFA had polled 47,97,272 votes winning 117 seats out of 196 in the fray in 20 districts gaining 60.43% of the votes polled. The main opposition UNP lagging far behind had been able to garner only 23,36,691 votes which is 29. 43% and secured 46 seats. more..

Apr 10 (Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who spearheaded the UPFA campaign, secured an overwhelming mandate at the April 8 General Election, whereas the UNP-led United National Front (UNF) and its erstwhile ally, the JVP, suffered a humiliating defeat. The President pledged that a victory for the UPFA would give a turbo-boost to development efforts in the wake of armed forces� triumph over the LTTE. more..

Apr 10 (National) The President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a year after winning the war against Tamil rebels, yesterday firmed his grip on power as his ruling party swept to victory at parliamentary polls. The ruling UPFA won 17 of the 22 districts, three went to the TNA in areas in the North and East dominated by minority Tamils, while the remaining two were to be announced today by the Elections Commissions due to complaints of irregularities during polling. more..

Apr 10 (TN) If the fort of Jaffna which was the symbol of colonial and post-colonial oppression of Eezham Tamils, and which continues to be the seat of occupying forces of the Sinhala State, has to be preserved with the funds of the Netherlands government, why should the monuments built by Tamils in their own land, remembering their own struggle, have to be destroyed, asks an academic in Jaffna, more..

Apr 10 (LG) There is nothing surprising in that it was the government that won the parliamentary election. It was not even an achievement, even though the number of seats won by them was unprecedented. The result was a foregone conclusion after the January presidential elections. As I have pointed out on earlier occasions in this newspaper it�s not necessary to get two thirds of the votes cast, more..

Apr 10 (LG) The General Election is now behind us and we have new government in place. As this column is being written, the results are trickling in. But the disappointing aspect in this election is the low turn-out of voters � the lowest in the history of parliamentary elections since independence. Even when an election was held in the midst of an insurgency, the turn-out was higher. more..

Apr 10 (GV) It is with utter frustration, one sees, the total apathy and fatality with which the educated and informed segment of Sri Lanka�s polity are succumbing to the despicable level of bad governance, corruption, nepotism and its disastrous consequences on the economy and foreign relations. It seems like we are in a time warp � around 475 AD in the ancient kingdom of king Kashyappa. more..

Apr 10 (LT) The Leader of DNA and candidate of that alliance for Colombo District has obtained the highest percentage of preferential votes at the concluded general election 2010. The number of votes the DNA received from Colombo District was 110,683 and Gen. Fonseka received 98,456 votes out of it. Accordingly, Gen. Fonseka�s percentage of preferential votes is 88.95%. more..

Apr 10 (MoD) Sri Lanka's tourism industry is seeing further growth with arrivals increasing by over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to last year. Tourist arrivals for the last three months have seen a 50.3 percent growth from 106,702 to 160,409 arrivals year-on-year. February 2009 saw the largest growth for the last two years, increasing by 67.7 percent from 34,169 to 57,300 year-on-year. more..

Apr 10 (MoD) Although the Sri Lankan economy was projected to grow by 2.5 percent last year, the figure was 3.5 percent in real terms after four consecutive years of over six percent growth, said K. D Ranasinghe, director, Economic Research of Central Bank. With the recovery of the economy since the second quarter, the growth reached 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter. The per capita income increased to US$ 2,053 and it is projected to double within the next five years, he said. more..

Apr 10 (LP) Sri Lanka Navy rescued the seriously ill Captain of MV �Lilly Line� yesterday in a location about 500 kilometers South-east of the Little Basses Reef. The merchant ship which was sailing under the Maldivian flag, was on a passage from Male to the Port Kelang in Malaysia reported the SL navy. The seriously ill Captain was in need of proper medical care and more..

Apr 10 (LNP) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has silenced his critics both here and abroad by scoring a spectacular win at Thursday`s parliamentary polls. By giving him a huge majority, the people have reaffirmed their verdict at the presidential election in January. It is unfortunate that the final result could not be announced owing to the annulment of polling in some areas affected by violence, in Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee. more..

Apr 10 (LNP) By the year 2012, Sri Lanka would be in a position to introduce Euro 4 diesel, the best quality diesel used in developed countries, National Council for Economic Development Executive Director Don Jayaweera said. He told a recent workshop, titled Clean Fuels and Vehicles organized by the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) in Colombo, that though at present Sri Lanka used Euro 2 type diesel upgraded by more..

Apr 10 (LP) The General Elections held on the 8th of April brings in quite a number of new faces along with the seasoned ones. Nation�s attention will naturally fall on the youngest to enter parliament from the deep South of the island on none other than 23 year old Namal Rajapaksa who successfully made his debut with an indisputable majority. more..

Apr 10 (DN) Will the President be �magnanimous� now? This was a question that someone put to me this morning (9). We are talking about a situation where although all results have not been announced, trends are pretty clear; i.e. a situation where the ruling party, the UPFA is heading towards a significant victory. Let�s first put things in context. In 2004, the UPFA could barely manage a simple majority in Parliament and more..

Apr 10 (DN) SLFP General Secretary and Agriculture, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena told the Daily News the highest number of seats has been won by the UPFA in the existing electoral system. �It was a very clear victory that will pave the way to form a strong government�. �Even the people who introduced this system could not secure a victory of this magnitude,� he said. more..

Apr 10 (Island) Sri Lanka has sustained immense losses in all spheres of development because of the 30-year-old war, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told a recent UPFA rally at Eheliyagoda Co-operative conference hall. He said foreign investors were reluctant to invest in Sri Lanka because of the war situation. During the war, he said, local investors were investing in countries like the Maldives and more..

Apr 10 (DN) The 14th Parliament will be flush with a host of new faces with Thursday�s general election throwing up many debutantes to occupy the hallowed seats of the country�s supreme legislature among them celebrity artistes and sports personalities, entrepreneurs and journalists. But the cynosure of all eyes will be Namal Rajapaksa the first third generation Rajapaksa to enter the legislature. more..

Apr 10 (TC) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has scored a double whammy with his thumping success in the parliamentary elections April 2010 after his triumph in the presidential poll in January 2010. With this Rajapaksa has emerged as the most powerful man in Sri Lanka. Already he enjoys wide powers of executive presidency. This is further boosted now by the majority his ten-party UPFA enjoys in the new parliament. more..

Apr 10 (Island) By the time you read this, the Grand Old Party, recording the worst defeat in its 63 year history , and with an unprecedented number of successive loses under Ranil, the "Unge Ne-deyinge Paksaya", a name coined for it by its rival scribes in the early 50s, referring to the marriage of three young men from three aristocratic families, namely F R Senanayaike, John Kotalawala (snr) and T G Jayewardene (JR�s uncle), more..

Apr 10 (Island) The April 8 parliamentary elections were free and fair despite the comparatively lower voter turnout, according to the Centre for Monitoring Free and Fair Elections and Democratic Rights. MENIKE Chairman Chandrasiri de Silva pointed out that voter disillusionment might have contributed to the low-turnout as there had been many elections in a row within a short period of time. more..

Apr 10 (DM) When a strong Sinhala Buddhist base ensured an overwhelming victory for President Mahinda Rajapaksa on January 26, it was read by many as evidence of a continuous trend of nationalism that kicked off with the war victory. Just as much as the end of war united people it had also made them eternally vigilant of any elements that have the potentiality to divide the country. more..

Apr 10 (AD) Re-polling in the annulled polling divisions at Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee will be held on April 20, says the Elections Department. Polling at several divisions in Nawalapitiya and one, Kumburuppidi in Trincomalee were annulled by the Elections commissioner on April 8 after several complaints were lodged regarding alleged polls malpractices. more..

Apr 10 (TN) SLFP candidates of the ruling UPFA who contested Jaffna electorate allied with EPDP led by former Minister Douglas Devananda accused EPDP men for intimidating them when they were coming out of Jaffna Secretariat after the vote count, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, the four defeated SLFP candidates, being the organizers of the party in Jaffna district, have been instructed to stay in the peninsula and more..

Apr 10 (DM) Last Monday�s triple murder at Kolambageara was a contract killing, according to the police. Police said yesterday that the suspect had paid Rs.1.1 million to the killer. The victims, L.K.Gunapala, and his two married daughters, all of Kolambageara in Udawalawa, had been murdered, and their bodies had been hung from the roof beams in three separate rooms in order to give the impression that the deaths were suicides. more..

Apr 10 (AN) A mobile clinic to treat the poor and needy, provide medicines and provide free specialist visits. This is the initiative launched this Easter by the parish of Kandana, Diocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In the past the parish of San Sebastian, in Kandana, had organized mobile clinics for the poor. The Easter initiative was made possible thanks to the participation of 10 government doctors, more..

Apr 10 (Telegraph) My wife and I had a marvellous holiday in Sri Lanka. A friend had raved about it; we went � and had the time of our lives. Our pal suggested we base ourselves at a guesthouse near Mount Levinia, near Colombo, which was very comfortable, but if you have deep pockets, the somewhat swankier Mount Lavinia Hotel � home to the colonial-style Governor's restaurant � might be to your liking. more..

Apr 10 (DN) This victory is a mandate given by the people for the Mahinda Chintana policy program, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. �I had requested all Sri Lankans to elect a strong Parliament that could face any international challenge and accordingly a distinguished historic parliamentary election victory for the UPFA has been recorded,� President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated yesterday. more..

Apr 10 (wsws) The ruling UPFA won the overwhelming majority of seats in parliamentary elections held on Thursday. But the result that shocked the media and political establishment was the historic low turnout and large falls in support for all the main bourgeois parties, pointing to widespread discontent and alienation among working people. Voter turnout fell to 52 percent, the worst since independence in 1948�the previous low was 64 percent. more..

Apr 10 (DM) Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga said last night that the new UPFA cabinet would be named in the next few days. �The President will start work on the cabinet of ministers tonight,� he said. While the last Cabinet consisted of 51 cabinet ministers, 39 non cabinet Ministers and 19 deputy ministers President Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as other leaders of the Government promised to appoint a smaller cabinet while campaigning more..

Apr 10 (AD) This is the first time in Sri Lanka that a political party leader has won at a general election while still being in custody, said JVP member and Gampaha district DNA candidate Vijitha Herath. The DNA began facing obstructions and intimidation from the day it started its campaign but they were able to overcome those, Mr. Herath said while addressing the media at a briefing more..

Apr 10 (DM) Leader of the UNP Ranil Wickramasingha says he will not step down as the party leader despite the UNP losing the recent General Elections and attributes his party�s defeat on the electoral system and not a lack of faith in him. The UNP leader said that he will step down �when the time is right� and that now the party has a responsibility towards the voters who decided not to cast their vote. more..

Apr 10 (IL) President Mahinda Rajapaksa is seen here having casual chats at many informal stops in towns of Kirama, Katuwana, Walasmulla, Modarawana, Beliatte, Galagama and Ranna in the Hambantota district Southern Province of Sri Lanka. He visited those towns, some are still rural villages after casting his vote at D.A.Rajapaksa Maha Vidyalaya more..