Sri Lanka to vote for Parliament

The news of the day: the Indian Supreme Court criticises ‘bulldozer justice’; In New Zealand, Maori MPs oppose a bill to revise an indigenous-government treaty; An Iranian activist committs suicide in protest against the regime; In Georgia, the opposition considers the new parliament ‘illegitimate’ and tensions spread to Abkhazia.

SRI LANKA

Polling stations opened this morning for early parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, considered a test for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who was elected only seven weeks ago. The main concern for the population remains the economy: the number of people living below the poverty line has risen to 25.9% in the last four years, while the World Bank expects limited growth of 2.2% this year.

INDIA

In a new ruling, the Indian Supreme Court sought to curb ‘bulldozer justice’, stating that the house of an accused or convicted person cannot be demolished. The court ordered the authorities to give the person concerned sufficient time to challenge the order or abandon the property. For a long time, the BJP government has been using the justification of illegal building to demolish houses (mainly of Muslims) in an arbitrary manner.

NEW ZEALAND

This morning a parliamentary session in New Zealand was suspended by some Maori MPs who staged a haka to interrupt the vote on a bill that seeks to reinterpret a historic treaty between the government and indigenous people. In recent days hundreds of people have undertaken a march (hikoi) in protest.

PHILIPPINES

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his government will not block the investigation of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed during the infamous ‘war on drugs’. Marcos's statements follow a hearing during which Duterte called for the investigation (after having long opposed it) claiming he had nothing to hide.

IRAN

Kianoosh Sanjari, a well-known Iranian human rights activist committed suicide in protest against the Iranian regime's failure to release four political activists, themselves arrested for supporting the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini. In a post published before his death, he had written that he wished that ‘one day the Iranians’ would ‘wake up and defeat slavery’.

RUSSIA

As Nezavisimaja Gazeta informs, Russia has invested more than 10 billion roubles (100 million euros) over the past two years in the modernisation of the canal linking the Caspian Sea and the Volga, the so-called ‘North-South corridor’, which is of primary strategic importance following Western sanctions, connecting Russia to India and Iran.

GEORGIA

Members of the opposition parties in Georgia of the National Movement and the Coalition for Change, which had won almost 200 seats in the parliamentary elections, approached the Election Commission with statements asking not to be registered as MPs, considering the new parliament to be ‘illegitimate’, pending new elections. In the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia, opponents were arrested for violently assaulting MP Almas Akaba, in charge of an investment project with the Russians, while supporters of those arrested blocked the main republican road to the capital Sukhumi

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