SL Karate Do Federation officials demand independent elections

By Susil Premalal 

Former officials of the Sri Lanka Karate Do Federation are requesting Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe and other responsible officials of the Ministry of Sports to immediately dissolve the Interim committee appointed for the administration of the sport and call an election under an independent Election Committee. 

The administration of the Sri Lanka Karate Federation was dissolved under the powers of the Minister of Sports and an Interim Committee consisting of nine people appointed by the Director General of the Department of Sports Development. 

Former Karate authorities have taken steps to inform President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other high level officials about this injustice done by the Ministry of Sports. 
“Dissolving the elected officials of the Sri Lanka Karate Do Federation through a special gazette announcement by the Minister of Sports without any inquiry and appointing a group of people with political influence to exercise administrative powers is an unfair decision,” said Sri Lanka Karate Federation former Secretary Keerti Basnayake, former Vice President Mahinda Suwaris and former Assistant Treasurer Varnajit Fernando at a press conference held in Colombo. 

If the Ministry of Sports does not take steps to hold the Karate election within the next 60 days after appointing an independent election committee, the former authorities of the Karate Do Federation hope to deal with the injustice appropriately. 

The former authorities have also taken steps to inform the International Karate Do Federation about the crisis that has arisen regarding the administration of Karate Do in Sri Lanka. 
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Karate Championship 2023 and South Asian Karate Championship are scheduled to be held in November in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’s participation in these tournaments has become uncertain as the administration of Sri Lanka Karate-Do has been transferred to the Interim Committee due to political interference, former officials point out. 

Sri Lanka Karate do Federation also has a bank deposit of 20 million rupees.