The former captain of Sri Lanka’s cricket team Tillakaratne Dilshan has been nominated by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) for a national list seat in upcoming parliamentary elections.

Dilshan joins a growing list of Sri Lankan cricketers who have gone on to embrace a career in Sri Lankan politics, including former cricket captains.

Extremist Sinhala Buddhist monks from the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have formed a new joint coalition to contest in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections.

The chairman of Sri Lanka’s election commission confirmed that parliamentary elections scheduled for next month will be delayed due to the current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak on the island.

Tamils in Jaffna representing a spectrum of political parties filed their nominations papers this morning, as Sri Lanka’s election commissioner confirmed that parliamentary polls scheduled for next month would still be held.

Armed Sri Lankan soldiers have been enforcing quarantine procedures for arrivals coming into the island at Colombo’s international airport this week, as the military expands its role in tackling the coronavirus outbreak. 

The US Embassy in Sri Lanka donated supplies to the Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo on Tuesday, as part of US global relief efforts to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that all inbound flights to the island will be shut down for two weeks and that the security forces were engaged in a “continuous search” for persons that arrived from high risk countries as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

A patient at Batticaloa Teaching Hospital has tested positive for coronavirus, the first case in the NORth-East, as the island-wide total climbed to 43 earlier today.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health said that almost 200 other people are currently under observation at hospitals and treatment centres.

The Sri Lankan military admitted it was using intelligence officers to track down foreign arrivals who entered the island and may have evaded the government’s quarantine process, set up in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The head of the Sri Lankan army, who is currently subject to US travel sanctions due to his role in overseeing war crimes, is to lead Colombo’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak on the island.

SriLankan Airlines have confirmed that one of their pilots has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, just days after he reportedly attended an annual cricket match between two of Colombo’s elite schools.

The Chairman of the National Election Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, confirmed that a decision to postpone the general election was still not made despite the COVID-19 coronavirus threat in Sri Lanka.  

Mr. Deshapriya stated this yesterday (March 16), following a meeting between the health officials and officials of the Election Commission (EC).

US based advocacy group, People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL), released its third instalment of its Sinhalisation of the North-East series, focusing on the impact of state-sponsored Sinhalisation and militarisation of Seruwila-Verugal.

Data gathered by PEARL researchers in the series examines how Sinhalisation and militarisation is used to deliberately shift the demographics of Tamil and Muslim areas.