President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the Sri Lankan government expects to conclude discussions and reach an agreement with private bondholders on restructuring the country’s debt next week.
He made this statement while addressing the “Ekwa Jayagamu” public rally in Matara on Sunday (30).
In a significant milestone, Sri Lanka recently sealed a deal with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) to restructure the debt owed to its bilateral lenders, including India, and signed a separate agreement with China for debt treatment.
Wickremesinghe noted that since signing the agreements with bilateral creditors, representatives of private bondholders have begun discussions with the government.
“As of now, we have successfully achieved progress on both sides. We are expecting to successfully conclude this by next week,” he said.
The President also announced that elections, including the Presidential Election, General Election, and Provincial Council Election, will take place within this year and next year.
The United National Party (UNP) and a section of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) launched the President’s election campaign island-wide, starting from Matara under the theme ‘Ekwa Jayagamu’ (Victory Through Unity).
The rally was attended by Ministers Prasanna Ranatunga, Kanchana Wijesekera, Ali Sabry, Harin Fernando, Manusha Nanayakkara, Ramesh Pathirana, Douglas Devananda, North Western Province Governor Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, and President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor on National Security Sagala Ratnayake.
Ampara District Organizer of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal party and former member of the Eastern Provincial Council K. Pushpakumar alias Iniya Bharathi has been arrested.
He was arrested over the abduction and disappearance of the former Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University Prof. Subramaniyam Ravindranath.
Sivanathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) and former State Minister, was arrested by the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department at his office in Batticaloa on April 8, over this incident.
He was later detained for 3 months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Iniya Bharathi, also known as Kumaraswamy Pushpakumar, was arrested based on information revealed during the interrogation of Pillayan.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) said the electronic Revenue Licence system (eRL 2.0) is currently unavailable due to a critical technical infrastructure issue.
According to the ICTA, the disruption began on July 3, 2025, and has made vehicle revenue licence issuing services inaccessible.
The unavailability is expected to continue until July 9, 2025.
The ICTA expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to the public and assured that technical teams are working urgently to resolve the issue.
The agency also said that further updates will be shared as work progresses, with an official notice to be issued once services are restored.