President Ranil attends parliamentary proceedings

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has arrived in the parliament to attend its proceedings today (Jan 17), Ada Derana correspondent says.

Addressing the parliament, the Head of State said the draft bill to regulate election expenditure, which makes it compulsory for candidates to submit detailed reports on their campaign financing, would be presented to the parliament soon.

President Wickremesinghe also slammed a request made to postpone enforcing this bill and to exempt the candidates of the upcoming local government election from this rule, stressing that he would be accused of ‘sheltering thieves’ if he allows it.