The election committee of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) has rejected the nomination of Dakshitha Sumathipala as well as 04 other nominations of his camp.
Sumathipala, the President of the Anuradhapura District Football Association, had submitted his nomination to contest for the Presidency of the FFSL.
Only 08 nominations from Sumathipala’s camp have been accepted and critics say that this would raise the odds in the favour of his contender – Jaswar Umar.
The FFSL election committee has given rejected candidates time to submit their appeals until Sep. 03.
The candidates whose nominations were rejected are : Dakshitha Sumathipala who intended to contest for the Presidency, T.L. Uduwara (Wattala League) who intended to contest for the Vice Presidency, and Nalaka Dissanayake (Sri Lanka Schools), Nihal Perera (Wattala League) and Heshini Ariyaratne (Deniyaya League) who intended to contest for positions of Ex-Co members.
If Mr. Sumathipala’s appeals are rejected, former chairman Mr. Umar will be become the FFSL President uncontested while the remaining 04 main positions will also be filled uncontested.
However, the fact that all 13 nominations of the Umar camp were accepted, is also being talked about in Football circles.
This is mainly because the Sports Ministry had declared him as ineligible to contest at the last FFSL election. Therefore, the acceptance of a nomination by an individual once declared as ‘ineligible’, by the sports ministry itself, has raised eyebrows.
In addition, a Special Investigation Unit of the Sports Ministry had also recommended Mr. Umar was not deemed fit to hold a post in any sports federation. It was also recommended to take disciplinary action against him on a ministry level.
However, it is also singular that this year’s election committee consists of officials who were present last time as well.
The committed is chaired by retired judge U.L Abdul Majid and includes retired Judge Bandula K. Athapattu and Major General (Retd.) Upali Gunasekara as other members.
The recommendations made over the irregularities of Mr. Umar, by the Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit to prevent offences relating to sports, are as follows :
Below is the list of accepted and rejected nominations for this year’s FFSL election.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed non complying purchases made by Sri Lanka under the 2023 Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as well as inaccuracies of information reported to the IMF.
However, the IMF has decided to grant waivers and not pursue further action, citing corrective measures and a commitment to reform by Sri Lankan authorities.
Following the Executive Board’s discussion, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair – Mr. Kenji Okamura, has issued the following statement:
“The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed non complying purchases made by Sri Lanka under the 2023 Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (“EFF”), as well as a breach of obligations under Article VIII, Section 5. The noncomplying purchases arose as a result of the provision of inaccurate information by the authorities on the stock of expenditure arrears at the first, second, and third reviews under the EFF.
“The inaccuracies in information provided to the IMF were inadvertent and arose because of weaknesses in the timely reporting of arrears by line ministries to the Ministry of Finance, as well as a misunderstanding by the authorities of the definition of “arrears” under the Technical Memorandum of Understanding.
“The Executive Board positively considered the authorities’ corrective actions, the fact that arrears repayments will be accommodated within the existing fiscal envelope, and the authorities’ commitment to improving public financial management procedures in line with the new PFM law, to reduce the risk of accruing arrears or inaccurate reporting of information going forward. In view of the above, the Executive Board agreed to grant waivers for the nonobservances of the quantitative performance criterion that gave rise to the noncomplying purchases and decided not to require further action in connection with the breach of obligations under Article VIII, Section 5.”
Abdul Wazeeth of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has been appointed as a Member of Parliament, the National Election Commission has announced.
His appointment comes following the resignation of former MP M. S. Naleem, who had entered Parliament through the SLMC National List after the 2024 parliamentary election.
Police had been compelled to use tear gas to control a tense situation that erupted between residents and police in Kahawatta following the funeral of a youth who was shot dead recently.
The funeral was held today (July 03) and the clash had broken out shortly afterwards.
Residents had expressed anger over the handling of the and had hurled stones at the police, reports say.