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Addressing a propaganda campaign to promote the UNP candidates in Hatton on Wednesday (22), he said that the UNP is a party that only promises what can be delivered and does not promise the unrealistic and impossible.

“Those leaders who are promising to grant every family Rs. 20,000 had brought 4,500 persons from Hambantota to Colombo promising them employment and paid them salaries without giving them permanent jobs.Today all of them have no jobs and no income and they are at home. The UNP is a party which strives to unite everyone and there is no other party in Sri Lanka which possesses these qualities. Many of the parties are based on ethnicity and religious lines. Under the UNP regime we had established a strong economy which was beneficial to the people, but over the past eight months the economy has collapsed,” Karunanayake added.

The pro-government 'Lanka Lead News' reported that the Foreign Secretary had not obtained prior approval from the Minister of Foreign Relations before sending the letter to the Prime Minister. 

The President appointed an Expert’s Committee to review the proposed MCC Compact and called for the Cabinet of Ministers to provide documented feedback on the Committee's report. It was reported that some ministers had requested more time to submit their views during the past few days.

However, it was also reported that most Ministers had handed over the responsibility of submitting the documented feedback to their respective Secretaries of the Ministries instead.

According to internal sources in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, a group of Secretaries to certain Ministries had decided to make the relevant recommendations collectively and had sought the advice of the Foreign Secretary.

Cabinet spokesperson Minister Bandula Gunawardena at a recent press briefing reiterated that international agreements cannot be simply overturned.

Commenting on this, United National Party (UNP) Leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that this was due to the unruly behaviour of politicians and the lack of transparency in political affairs conducted by the politicians.

These comments were expressed at the launch of ‘Parapura’ which took place on July 11. ‘Parapura’ is a platform for youth to get involved in national politics where youth will be able to pitch in their ideas and suggestions to political leaders.

 He also stated that there is an air of uncertainty due to the current economic climate of the country. “Despite our political differences, we all need to collectively compile short term and long-term plans to revive the economy and have a basic framework. Without a basic framework, we won’t be able to alleviate this situation,” he said.

Sathira Sarachchandra, former Director of the National Youth Services Council, shared that the youth population wishes to be free, independent, have access to education, higher education and job opportunities, live in peace and to be able to carry out a content family life. “The youth does wish to provide leadership and support governmental endeavours that contribute to this. The reason we launched Parapura is so that the youth will be able to voice out their opinions and contribute to the decision-making process of the country,” said Sarachchandra.

The number of unemployed persons is estimated as 483,172 during the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rates stood at 9.6% and 3.7% for females and males respectively.

Youth unemployment rate (age 15 – 24 years) corresponding to the first quarter 2020 was recorded at 26.8% which was the highest reported unemployment rate among all age groups.

Director General of the Elections Secretariat, Saman Sri Rathnayake has said the PHI unions had assured they would not obstruct the election process.

“They will help us in their duties on election day. They indicated this during our discussions,” he has told The Morning.

He has noted that he didn’t believe that the PHIs would go ahead with the strike.

“During our discussions, it appeared that they wouldn’t conduct the strike. Regardless, their issue has nothing to do with the election or the Election Commission, so I don’t think it will be an issue,” Rathnayake has said.

In the event the strike does happen, the EC would address the issue at that time.

“There’s no point jumping the gun now before the strike has even happened. We will think of it if and when it happens,” he has added.

Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole in an open letter says that 'dangerous signs' are evident which shows that the integrity and the independence of the Police could have been compromised.

"We have the police to uphold law and order, and to support democratic institutions. Unfortunately, there are dangerous signs that they, the police, are a tool in the hands of the government in power. It is as sad an indictment as it is ominous to our democracy," Hoole said.

He also pointed out that there is ample evidence that criminal activity by those aligned with the government in power have no investigations going on against them. He said that with the change of government, there is sudden interest in such long forgotten cases.

"We bystanders are never sure if the police cleared the suspects after investigation and the new government suddenly finds evidence as a vendetta, or there was really a crime and the police suppressed investigations and after the change of government a proper investigation is being launched. Such a state of affairs is bad for democracy and an indictment on the police as a political tool," he warned.

Hoole further said that long standing cases are now being dropped during elections. For example, a witness in a case concerning Tiran Alles dropped out citing the inability to give evidence using photocopies without explaining why it took so long to say that. Another example is the naming as a prime suspect of a JMO who died recently and closing the matter when there are others who did the actual killing of Wasim Thajudeen.

He also said that when investigations are commenced during elections, they are legitimately suspicious of the reasons and have asked for a postponement of the investigations until polling is over.

"Recognizing the meddlesomeness of these investigations in the electoral processes, the Commission has consistently asked for investigations to be postponed until any ongoing elections are concluded. It can be argued that the people have a right to know before electing their representatives. However, when it is a case that has been dormant for months and even years and is revived during elections, the reasons for that are obviously political and an intervention is urgent," Hoole noted.

Thus it was when Mr. Sriranga of the famous Minnal program was suddenly arrested over a fatal accident years earlier, the Commission asked the police to postpone investigations until the investigations seemingly timed for the local government elections were over. The police thankfully respected that. Similarly, the election authority intervened when Namal Rajapakse and Sarana Gunawardena had long dormant cases revived during elections. We asked for a postponement of the investigations and that was respected.

Are Bathiudeen and Karunanayake political targets?

"Today, we have an investigation into whether Rishad Bathiudeen is connected to the sad events of 21 April 2019. After 15 months, why is this investigation being started as the polls are just 2 weeks away? After waiting 15 months why can the police not wait a mere two weeks more for the polls to be over?" Hoole inquired.

He said that the Elections Commission wrote a strong, unanimously agreed letter to the IGP and asked for the postponement of investigation until after the elections. The CID nonetheless kept asking Bathiudeen to report at their headquarters.

Ravi Karunanayake also received summons reviving the investigations into some alleged corruption on his part.

"As a pattern of heavy-handed police interference seemed to be emerging, at the party leaders meeting on 17 July the Commission raised the matter with the party leaders assembled. Several top ranking politicians were present, including Mr. Basil Rajapaksa. They unanimously agreed that the commission’s position was right. Immediately thereafter, we wrote again to the police. Today, Sunday, I heard from Bathiuddin that he is due at a rally in Ampara tonight and the CID wants him to report tomorrow morning in Colombo. Have we lost our democracy and our right to free and fair elections?" he added.

They said that 451 out of 475 complaints are with regard to violations of election laws. The other 24 complaints were reported pertaining to property damage, assault and intimidation.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the CaFFE Ahmed Manas Makin urged private sector employees to lodge complaints with the election monitor if they have any problems in obtaining leave from private institutions to cast their votes.  

The former minister said that it is pointless to ask struggling entrepreneurs to obtain bank loans since many find it difficult to provide adequate collateral or sustain viable revenue streams.

Karunanayake pointed out that the country's economy was in bad shape even before the pandemic but has been hit worse since. Under a UNP government, he said they would focus on building a conducive environment to bring back business confidence.

He also pointed out that the businesses will need to be protected by the financial support of the Central Bank. "The Central Bank will have to take the risk factor and ensure that the businesses are made viable once again," he said.

One of the biggest problems the bankers face is the inability by loan applicants to present a sustainable payment plan which would result in the loan being not approved. "This is where, if it's a viable company, the government steps in to do that," he added.

Karunanayake, a former foreign minister, also pointed out the need to capitalise Sri Lanka's relationships with the international community.

"We need to embrace our friendly nations, to ensure investments or loan facilities to the government, which in turn could be recycled back as funds to the people," he said.

13 officers attached to the Police Narcotic Bureau, arrested on the charge of trafficking drugs, were further remanded until the 04th of August by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on Tuesday (21).

The suspects were not produced in court when the matter was called up.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris informed the court that a group of officers attached to the PNB, including the 14 suspects, had worked with international drug traffickers and smuggled a large volume of heroin by boat from international waters to Sri Lanka.

He said the operation was taking place since 2017 and the suspects had generated an income of over Rs. 102 Million since then.

The Deputy Solicitor General went on to note, while engaged in drug trafficking, the suspects had staged drug raids where the drugs distributed by them were seized as part of their theatrics.

Further, he said evidence revealed a large portion of the 279 kilograms of heroin seized by the Sri Lanka Navy in deep seas, while arresting several Iranian, were sold back to the drug traffickers.

He added the suspects had also paid off millions to their sleuths and boat owners & crew, who assisted in bringing heroin from international waters to Sri Lankan shores.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris pointed out the Acting Inspector General of Police and other senior ranked police officers should also be held accountable for the lack of supervision on the suspects.

It was also revealed in court, the suspects had made pilgrimages to Kataragama and uploaded pictures of their visits to social media before conducting raids.

DSG Peiris went on to note, in this backdrop Sri Lanka Police was very much concerned of protecting the identities of PNB officers involved in raids, as they denied entry to journalists who were invited by the Attorney General to attend a briefing organized by the AGs Department for the Police Narcotic Bureau.

The President made this observation in response to questions posed to him by a graduate in Ratnapura on Sunday (19). The President had met with the public at Embilipitiya and had noted that graduates are the cream of any nation that forms the most important part of any sector.

“But there is no use if graduates fail to work towards developing the country’s economy,” the President has said.