The European Union called for new election laws that allowed for domestic and international observers to observe all stages of the electoral process.

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) Chief Observer Cristian Preda in a press conference on Saturday said,

“The electoral law could be reviewed to allow direct campaigning; to develop parties finance rules to ensure a level field between candidates; and to require that the parties nominate candidates for the national list seats before elections, so that voters can anticipate the result of their votes.”

A police station in Jaffna has been surrounded by military forces who are demanding the release of Sri Lankan military soldiers recently arrested for stealing materials belonging to locally owned businesses.

Tensions around the police station in Chavakacheri Jaffna are rising after it was surrounded by military personnel demanding the release of the detained soldiers this evening.

The Sri Lankan government is cracking down on illegal practices by local fishermen, ahead of a EU inspection in November, in the hope that the ban on EU imports will be lifted.

Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told the Sunday Times that the government had taken action to ensure that the fishermen adhered to the conditions set by the EU.

“The two vessels which had been found violating the conditions should have been fined Rs. 2.5 million each, but the Government had fined them only Rs. 1 million each, because it was their first offence,” he said.

The minister said the EU had put forward 57 conditions and the government was ensuring these were all complied with.

"I took up the issue with EU officials during a recent visit to Spain. I also briefed them on how Sri Lanka was fast tracking the implementation process. We are waiting for the inspection by an EU delegation due on November 13,” Minister Amaraweera said.

The report on the president's commission on missing people, also known as the Paranagama Commission, was given to parliamentarians on Friday.

The commission was widely discredited, with Tamil victims groups boycotting it and the recent OISL report also criticising it. Nevertheless, there have been widespread calls for the release of its final report.

The Nation reported that the government released the report to MPs in order to give them adequate time to study it ahead of the upcoming Parliamentary debate into the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution passed at the beginning of this month.

Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen was supporting the illegal clearance of pristine forest in the Mullaithivu area, with his supporters using the cleared land to build settlements, Northern Provincial Councillor Thurairajah Ravikaran charged.

Mr Ravikaran said the occupation of land in the region has been ongoing for years, with the complicity of state officials and warned that locals would protest if this did not stop.

The deployment of Sri Lanka's troops in peacekeeping missions has created "extremely positive" impressions regarding the country's armed forces in the international community, military spokesperson Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera has claimed.

“We have deployed our armed forces personnel in Haiti, South Sudan, Lebanon, Congo, New York, Western Sahara, Central Africa etc and they are doing a good job drawing praise from the UN and the respective governments of the countries they serve in. Therefore, deploying more Sri Lankan armed forces personnel in peace keeping will not be a difficult task,” Brigadier Jayaweera said at a briefing.

The "good name" earned by the country's military came as a result of "positive and pragmatic diplomacy" by President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Army Commander Crishantha De Silva, the brigadier further said.

He highlighted that Sri Lankan peacekeeping forces deployed in Haiti were "highly commended" for their performance.

The brigadier failed to mention that Sri Lankan soldiers in Haiti were accused of widespread sexual abuses against Haitian minors whilst on a previous peacekeeping mission. 111 soldiers and 3 officers were repatriated back to Sri Lanka after being part of UN mission in Haiti and were accused of a string of sexual assaults, including rape of children as young as 7 years old.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa praised his successor Maithripala Sirisena for speaking in Sinhala at the United Nations General Assembly earlier this month.

"I felt proud as a Sinhalese, when he (President Sirisena) spoke in our mother tongue in front of the world, although some were trying to give wrong interpretation to speaking in Sinhala at international fora," the former president said in Colombo on Thursday, the Daily Mirror reported.