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| Saturday, 12 February 2005 |
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Politics | |
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| Presidential poll on or before Nov. 2006 - Mangala by Manjula Fernando The Government yesterday announced it will hold the presidential election on or before November 12 next year, reiterating the President had no intention of postponing the poll as alleged by the Opposition. Cabinet spokesman Minister Mangala Samaraweera said it was not the custom of the UPFA or the President to delay elections. "This allegation has been made to prevent the international community from channelling funds for tsunami reconstruction,portraying that President Kumaratunga is preparing for a dictatorship," he said. Referring to past UNP regimes where elections were delayed by years under President J. R. Jayewardene supported by the likes of Ranasinghe Premadasa and the Opposition Leader who raised both hands for putting off elections, Minister Samaraweera said, President Kumaratunga had always stuck to the general time tables with regard to elections. Samaraweera said the state Media has never been used to manufacture false stories about the Opposition Leader. He said the opposition leader himself must publicly deny if what has been written in the papers about his remarks favouring direct LTTE tsunami funding or asking the international community to link relief assistance to the ISGA or reprimanding a senior diplomat for co-ordinating the visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, was not true. The Minister said certain petty minded UNP politicians baffled after the effective handling of the tsunami catastrophe, the single most devastating experience Sri Lanka or any of its governments suffered, were making baseless allegations. "This was an opportunity Mother Nature gave us to get united and it was realised for a moment with all parties, regardless of their political leanings, rallying round one banner for the cause of tsunami survival. But the dark elements succeeded and the unity did not last long," the minister said. Samaraweera said: "We can step into a new era only if we work together forgetting politics. We can consider tsunami as the challenge put before us by Mother Nature. When Sri Lanka gained independence 57 years ago, the London Times predicted that Sri Lanka will become the Switzerland of Asia within a short time by using its talents and natural resources". "Delivering the first budget speech after becoming the Prime Minister of Singapore in 1965, Lee Kwan Yu, said his only determination was increasing Singapore's growth rapidly more than Sri Lanka's. But after 57 years we are still in the same position and the country is a divided land without unity. We have divided into groups according to races, religions and even as castes and social classes," the Minister said. On December 31, all leaders, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Speaker, JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, Douglas Devananda, Minister Ferial Ashraff etc got together symbolising unity during the Adishthana Pooja and everyone thought that 2005 will see a new leaf being turned in the Sri Lankan history after the biggest disaster in the country's history. But the determination had a very short life span due to a handful of UNPers", he said. "Some leaders of the same party said they do not need to take political advantages over bodies. A majority of UNPers are with such leaders. The leadership has given into those handful of UNPers led by a dentist, a professor and a person who gets commission from fish and posses lands by the sea. They shout and try to destroy the goodwill and unity between the Government and the opposition. We would like to know to which group Ranil Wickremesinghe is going to listen and support", he said. "It was our regime which gave permission to telecast news to the private channels which today accuse the Government for nothing. But we will not stop them and we will let them to continue with their crusade", Minister Samaraweera said. |
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