Social Events

Launch of the First Bi-Annual Report on Monitoring the Government’s Manifesto: A Thriving Nation – A Beautiful Life

First Half-Yearly Report on Policy Statement Monitoring Released

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) organization and the March 12 Movement launched the first half-yearly report on monitoring the implementation of the government’s policy statement “A Thriving Nation and a Beautiful Life” on September 26 at the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall in Colombo.

This report presents the initial findings of the monitoring process conducted over the first six months since the present government assumed office, focusing on four areas: public, social, economic, and governance sectors.

The monitoring report was handed over to the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government, Professor Chandana Abeyratne.

Launching Bi-Annual Report

Launching Bi-Annual Report Monitoring the Implementation of the Government’s Manifesto ‘A Thriving Nation-A Beautiful Life by PAFFREL and March 12 Movement on September 26, 2025 @Jasmin, BMICH

Rise up for Clean Politics

Upholding transparency, good governance and clean politics, this event, held on 28th March 2024 at Viharamahadevi Park. It showcased the collective strength of civil society, with participation from the March 12 Movement district committees. In collaboration with NPC and its inter-religious collective, the event was attended by more than 1,200 people from across the country. Parallel to the main event, knowledge hubs were arranged, where participants could learn about various governance-related topics, where government and non-government organizations joined, including TISL, SLCDF, Ramya Lanka, DOJF, Heart to Heart, NPC, our M12 Steering Committee, the Election Commission, Human Rights organizations, the Child Protection Authority, the Learning Hub, Legal Aid, Verité Research, and RTI Commission.

Presidential Candidate Debates

A discussion series on the governance principles and economic policies of the election manifestos of the presidential candidates of the Presidential Election 2024 was broadcasted on the Independent Television Network.

PAFFREL organized live Presidential Debates on September 07, 08, and 09th 2024. Though some of the mainstream candidates declined the open invitation, 12 presidential candidates participated in the event series, which was live-streamed on seven television channels and numerous social media channels. This joint media and civil society initiative calls for the Presidential candidates and their political parties to engage in a policy dialogue on equal grounds as well as provide comparative analytical information to the voters to make informed decisions prior to voting. 

PAFFREL, March 12 Movement, and Helakuru Institute Signed MoU to Publish Candidate Information for 2024 Parliamentary Elections

With the aim of providing candidates who contested the 2024 parliamentary elections with a platform to share their basic information with the public, and to enable voters to gain a fundamental understanding of their candidates before casting their votes, an agreement of understanding was signed on 11 October 2024 between PAFFREL, the March 12 Movement, and the Helakuru Institute to compile and make public the basic information of the candidates.

Several members of the operations committee of the March 12 Movement, along with Helakuru Institute’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Dhanika Perera and several other officials, were present at the occasion.

The President signs the March 12 Statement.

The March 12 Movement's statement, which outlines eight basic criteria to be considered by political parties when nominating candidates, was signed on 19th June 2015 by President Maithripala Sirisena, who was serving as both the President of Sri Lanka and the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, at the Presidential Office.

Blessings of Religious Leaders for the March 12 Movement

Since its inception, the March 12 Movement had the blessings and guidance of all religious leaders. Also, the March 12 Movement received generous support from religious leaders in formulating the set of March 12 criteria.

March 12 Movement: Strengthening Clean Politics for a Better Sri Lanka

We are preparing for a Parliamentary Election this year (2020), which marks the 5th anniversary of the March 12 movement; and political parties have already begun to make various comments about the candidates to be fielded. Meantime, one group has already commenced a dialogue on the need for bringing 100 new faces to the existing Parliament, from outside. Another group is engaged in inviting professionals contest with criteria being prepared for selecting them.

All these developments are indicators of success of the March 12 Movement. Today, the ground is ripe and enriched with our ideas. The objective of the March 12 Movement is to sow the best seeds in this fertile soil and gather a good harvest.

Recently, a group of representatives of political parties under the leadership of a group of multi religious leaders including a number of Mahanayake Theros, the Cardinal, leading Hindu and Islamic religious leaders launched certain criteria to be used in selecting electoral candidates which are similar to those advocated by the March 12 Movement. It marked a significant turning point in the dialogue launched by the March 12 Movement, five years ago, that a certain number of criteria must be considered in selecting candidates for contesting elections.

In other words, it must be one of the main responsibilities of all political parties to take into consideration the set of criteria that we have introduced and also the set of criteria set out by religious leaders who can exert profound influence on society, and combine both and devise an effective program to make them a reality.

We believe that the set of criteria presented by March 12 Movement should be updated, constantly to suit the current political contexts. Therefore, in reviewing the criteria, in order to make them relevant for today, we held a series of public consultations covering all districts as had been done when they were formulated initially.

Our intention is to enrich ourselves, constantly with new ideas and views from above mentioned consultations and update the original set of criteria incorporating new ideas expressed by respondents and seek consensus of political parties on the updated set of criteria which is due to take place during a ceremony scheduled to be held at the BMICH on March 12, 2020. We are also in the process of inspiring and mobilizing the voters to cast their preferential votes in conforming with these criteria.

We respectfully invite all religious leaders, scholars, artists, media institutions, journalists, professionals, trade union leaders and civic organizations to join hands with us to build a better Sri Lanka economically, politically, socially and culturally for our future generations.