By Norman Palihawadane

Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has urged the government to hold local elections to secure the democratic rights of the people.

“Voting is a right of the people that we must all enjoy. It is a right that every person over 18 -years of age is entitled to to determine the future of the country,” he said on Thursday.

“Today justice as been turned into injustice, governance to dictatorship and law into lawlessness,” the 75-year-old cardinal told a gathering of hundreds of people at a function at St. Anthony’s College in Kochchikade.

Local polls to elect 340 councils were slated for April 25 but the election commission postponed it, citing a lack of funds.

“The government said earlier that it doesn’t have money to hold an election, now it’s saying that it has money. If the government has the money, please give an opportunity to the people to vote and let the people express their wishes. How much of what came from the IMF was used for agriculture? How much for the fishing industry? And what about education?” the cardinal queried.

Rather than improving the lives of people, “politicians import goods, and bring in what we need and what we don’t need, destroying our economic independence, leading us to depend on foreign countries,” he said.

Shares in Sri Lanka’s state run Sri Lanka Telecom, the country’s top landline phone company, fell 7.8 percent on Friday during trades after a statement from a government MP opposing SLT’s proposed privatization.

The profit-making company is a key state owned enterprises listed to be privatized under proposed reforms in line with International Monetary Fund’s conditions. SLT shares were down during early afternoon trading on Friday.

“The prices went down only after the statement reached investors. Earlier SLT was expected to be more profitable if privatized as planned,” a stockbroker said asking not to be named.

(EconomyNext)

By Norman Palihawadane

As many as about 5,400 policemen are assigned as personal bodyguards to Buddhist monks, former MPs and ministers, judges and many others severely undermining regular law enforcement, police sources said on Friday.

Sources said that this number was in addition to those assigned to the incumbent ministers and MPs entitled to be guarded by the police. The highest number of policemen deployed as personal bodyguards were assigned to senior bhikkhus and judges.

Sources said that in addition to the above categories, policemen have been assigned for close protection duties of diplomats and some others with positive threat perceptions. Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said that the number of policemen assigned as guards to those other than parliamentarians was around 5,400 but he needed time to give exact figures.

He had called for a report on the matter and intended to review the threat perceptions to each and every person provided police protection once the report is in.He confirmed that the police was short of manpower.