Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva, SLFP National Organiser Susil Premajayantha and Vice President Dullas Alahapperuma at the media conference – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

By Chamodi Gunawardana

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday asserted that it has been following its own political agenda to remain in politics and did not care about allegations by other parties.

Attacking the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s (JVP) Politburo member K.D. Lalkantha, Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva asserted that the SLFP would never follow orders of the United National Party (UNP) like the JVP was doing.

“Lalkantha has criticised our manifesto launch and accused me of not being there due to some internal matters. I was busy with the Badulla election campaigns and therefore unable to participate. The JVP tried to highlight it as a party problem. These days the JVP is following the UNP’s orders, but we don’t do that,” Silva alleged. Commenting on Uva Province Chief Minister Harin Fernando, Opposition Leader claimed that he was a ‘political bandit’.

“Harin has been violating the ethics of political campaigning and following illegal methods to headhunt SLFP supporters. We expect to lodge a special complaint against him with the Elections Commissioner,” Silva assured. The SLFP National Orga-niser Susil Premajayantha accused that some postal voters had been forced to vote for the UNP by their superiors.

“We have already collected some information from postal voters. They exposed that some of their bosses have pressured them to vote for the UNP and ordered them to take a picture of the ballot sheet to prove it. I have sent a letter to the Elections Commissioner requesting a ban on usage of electronic devices such as mobile phones inside voting areas,” Premajayantha revealed.

SLFP accuses Government of violating Cabinet procedure

SLFP Vice President Dullas Alahapperuma yesterday alleged that the UNP Government had violated Cabinet procedure by appointing a Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) for the proposed Central Expressway project.

“There is a recognised procedure to appoint a CAPC to work on special projects. However, the Secretary to the Prime Minister has suddenly appointed a CAPC to discuss the Central Expressway project. Within three days they have decided to offer the expressway contract to a Chinese company,” Alahapperuma said.

He added that one of an engineer consultant firms which provided consultancy services to the Government had estimated the Central Expressway’s Kadawatha to Mirigama section at only Rs. 120 billion.  “The Government has announced that the Kadawatha to Mirigama 32km section will cost Rs. 150 billion and the cost per kilometre would be Rs. 4.b Billion. We believe this amount is too high compared to the Southern Highway. The earlier Government only spent Rs. 0.87 billion per kilometre for the Southern Highway,” Alahapperuma charged.