* Sri Lanka Supreme Court dismisses FR petition by UNF candidate on omitting his name from nomination list
Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 12:09 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Mar 18, Colombo: Sri Lanka Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a Fundamental Rights petition filed by SLFP (M) wing member Tissa Kuttiarachchi seeking the cancellation of the nominations list submitted by the main opposition UNP for the Monaragala District.

Kuttiarachchi, whose name was allegedly removed from the UNP Monaragala District nominations list before it was handed over to the District Returning Officer, file a the petition before the Supreme Court on March 8 seeking the cancellation of the party's Monaragala District list or the inclusion of his name in it.

The three-member Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake and Justices Chandra Ekanayaka and G.A. Ratnayake ruled that the Supreme Court cannot take up the matter further since the petitioner had not raised any objection during the time given to raise objections by the Election Commissioner on the day of the nominations.

The petitioner has listed 46 respondents including the UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake and the Election Commissioner Dayananda Dishanayake.

The Bench ruled that it cannot include a new candidate into an already submitted list and be accepted by the relevant authorities nor nullify an already accepted nomination list of a recognized political party.

Counsel for UNP General Secretary accepted that Kuttiarachchi’s name in the UNF nomination list had been deleted and another name has been included by utilizing a forged signature.

The party leadership has accused the former UNP Monaragala District parliamentarian Ranjith Madduma Bandara of altering the list before submission and removed him from his post as the party leader in the Monaragala district.

They said the signature of the General Secretary Tissa Attanayake had been forged after removing the petitioner's name from the nomination list.