- President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized the strength and talent of his team, asserting that they are well-equipped to overcome any challenge facing the country. Speaking at the 37th Annual Conference of the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA) at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, the President highlighted the critical role of public support in ensuring the success of the government’s economic recovery program.
- Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of National People’s Power alliance and its presidential candidate, says he’s serving those who were part of public protests that ousted then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022. Dissanayake says the people’s wishes for a change were not realized because the protesters did not have a plan beyond ousting the president and weren’t equipped to take charge.
- The presidential election manifesto of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) is scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday (August 29). The SJB Senior Vice President, Sujeewa Senasinghe said that the policy statement has now been finalized.
- Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is set to unveil its presidential election manifesto in the first week of September. SLPP media spokesperson Sanjeeva Edirimanna said that the party is currently in the final phase of preparing the policy statement.
- A hardline Tamil nationalist party has launched a campaign to boycott the September 21 presidential election, saying that no major candidate has pledged for the federal set-up for political autonomy for Tamils in the North and East of the country, local election monitoring groups said. Moreover, Selvaraja Kajendran, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) general secretary, has lodged a complaint against the police for obstructing their leaflets distribution campaign on Saturday in the eastern region of Thirukkovil.
- The Chief Medical Officer of Kandy, Dr. Pasan Jayasinghe revealed that around 50 tuberculosis (TB) patients have been diagnosed within the Kandy city limits during the period which has elapsed so far this year. Dr. Jayasinghe also highlighted that the most pressing infectious disease threat in Kandy is not dengue, but tuberculosis.
- The Department of Meteorology announced that on the apparent southward relative motion of the sun, it is going to be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka during August 28 to September 06 this year. The nearest places of Sri Lanka over which the sun is overhead on 28th are Delft Island, Pooneryn, Thadduvankoddi and Chundikkulam around 12.11 noon, it said.
- The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, says any political or social uncertainties or reversals of hard earned achievements that exerts significant pressure on the economic reforms agenda could lead to a deviation from the intended policy trajectory.
- The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to the proposal to instruct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a draft bill based on the improved fundamental draft in relation to introduction of a new law in relation to the rights of Sri Lankan indigenous community.
- Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was elected unopposed as the new chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
