COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
―Following the Presidential election, Fonseka was arrested on charges of campaigning
whilst in uniform and corruption over military procurement contracts. Courts martial
found Fonseka guilty on both charges and he was dishonourably discharged and
sentenced to 30 months in prison. As a result of the prison sentence, he lost his seat as
an MP, having been elected to Parliament in the April 2010 elections. He was also
charged under the Emergency Regulations and Penal Code for creating terror and
panic by his statement that senior military officials had ordered surrendering LTTE
leaders to be killed and sentenced to three years in prison.‖
See also Opposition groups and political activists
3.07 Information on how the presidential elections were conducted is available from
PAFFREL; CaFFE Final Report on the Presidential Elections 2010 as well as CMEV
Final report on election related violence and malpractices: Presidential Election 2010
3.08 The full official results of the January 2010 Presidential Election are available from the
website of the Sri Lanka Department of Elections
3.09 The FCO profile 25 further noted that:
―Parliamentary elections took place in April 2010. Overall voter turn out was 61%,
although much lower in some areas, including the north. Following the re-polling in two
districts due to electoral irregularities, the final result confirmed victory for President
Rajapaksa‘s United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which won 144 of the 225 seats
and leaving it just six seats short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the
constitution. Shortly after the announcement of the final result, DM Jayaratne of the
SLFP was named Prime Minister. A Cabinet reshuffle followed, reducing it from 52 to 37
members. Key roles were given to the President‘s brother, Basil Rajapaksa heading a
new ministry of Economic Development, which will have oversight of all major areas of
economy such as ports, tourism and foreign investment. Former Trade Minister GL
Peiris was appointed Foreign Minister, replacing Rohita Bogollagama, who lost his
parliamentary seat in the elections. As of December 2011, the Government now has
161 seats due to a number of crossovers.‖
3.10 The final official results of the April 2010 parliamentary were published on the official
website of the Department of Elections, accessed on 1 June 2011:
United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) 144
United National Party (UNP) 60
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (Tamil National Alliance TNA) 14
Democratic National Alliance 7
3.11 The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Country Report Sri Lanka, May 2010 26 stated
that:
25 Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), Country profile of Sri Lanka, last reviewed 9 December
2011, http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/asiaoceania/sri-lanka;jsessionid=4AC8FCEAFE70794624EC38E125BD0AE9.tomcat2date
date accessed 11
January 2012 (Latest Political Developments)
26 Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report Sri Lanka, May 2010
http://www.eiu.com/report_dl.asp?issue_id=177121002&mode=pdf [subscription only]
Date accessed 25 August 2010, p10
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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