With a record number of candidates (38) contesting Sri Lanka’s presidential election, voters are yet to witness what new stories (and old stories) these 38 players bring to the table. After all, from…
As Sri Lanka approaches a critical election many citizens, disillusioned with the incumbent government and the economic crisis, are pinning their hopes on the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance. The NPP, particularly…
As news of a mass grave breaks on television in a household in the North, its residents, a family of the disappeared, try to find ways of coping with this information. A…
Former High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said there were no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems because what they required were political solutions. When states and governments fail their citizens, endangering their…
The latest estimates of general election voting intent from Institute for Health Policy’s (IHP) SLOTS MRP model show the SJB and the NPP/JVP leading with 34% and 32% of voters’ support respectively,…
In Part 1, we explored the JVP’s evolving rhetoric and policies regarding ethnic relations, highlighting a shift from a more homogenous vision of Sri Lankan identity towards recognizing and accommodating diversity. However,…
The Institute for Health Policy’s (IHP) Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) MRP provisional estimates of presidential election voting intent for July 2024 show NPP/JVP leader A.K. Dissanayake and SJB leader Sajith…
As the 2024 elections approach in Sri Lanka, the National People’s Power (NPP) is positioning itself as a major contender. However, the JVP, the dominant party within the NPP, carries a legacy…
In Institute for Health Policy (IHP) SLOTS polling in July 2024, the net favourability rating of NPP/JVP leader A.K. Dissanayake rose 29 points from June to reach +3, and President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s…
Last month, I studied over 4,000 tweets linked to the three main presidential candidates – Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), Sajith Premedasa (SP), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) – in order to study how…
During the final stages of the 30 year war in Sri Lanka there was a perception held by the West and its allies, and reiterated like a mantra ever since, that it…
Despite ongoing pressure from the international community, reforms to advance human rights and reconciliation, especially in institutional and security sectors, have not occurred. On the contrary, there are renewed threats to fundamental…
Sri Lankans overwhelmingly cite the economy and inflation as their biggest concerns going into the September presidential election in the latest Institute for Health Policy (IHP) Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS)…
The law criminalizing sexual harassment could change very soon. A bill, which proposes to amend S. 345 of the Penal Code, has been gazetted. This is a welcome development. Yet amendments to…
Ray Wijewardene (1924-2010) often quoted these words by the English poet Robert Browning, embedded in the poem Andrea del Sarto. An engineer, aviator, inventor, farmer and a public intellectual of the highest…
