Islandwide emergency regulation - paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Provincial Council elections scheduled to be held on 28 August is to be postponed with the entire country coming under Emergency Regulations from that day, reported the Sunday Times, quoting D. M. Jayaratne, General Secretary, People's Alliance.

The Emergency will be extended till September 28 initially and later extended till November.

Earlier Dayananda Dissanayake, Commissioner of Elections, said that five out of eight provinces were to go to the polls by August 28.

Minister Jayaratne has said that the Emergency will continue up to November because Anuruddha Ratwatte, Deputy Minister of Defence has said he could bring the war to a close by the end of the year.

"We have come to understand that the war is more important than votes," said Minister Jayaratne.

When the Sri Lanka army captured Jaffna in early '96, the Deputy Defence Minister, General Ratwatte promised that the war would be over within the end of that year.

At the launch of Operation Jeyasikurui in May 1997, the General predicted that the war would be over within three months.

At the beginning of this year the General warned that the war would be over by the Independence day celebrations.

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