Dayasiri refutes allegations of secret pacts with UNP

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Rejecting his involvement in a petition in the Court of Appeal against the Gazette on Local Government delimitations, Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekara told Parliament yesterday that he had not entered into any secret pacts with the United National Party (UNP) to tarnish the image of certain lawmakers from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). 

“I need to mention in this House that I have not got myself involved before in any legal action to postpone the election or matters connected to that. The Leader of the SLFP President Maithripala Sirisena wanted me to explain this. We act according to the pact between the UNP and the SLFP. We don’t have secret agreements with the UNP aiming to tarnish names,” he said.

According to the Minister, his name was mentioned in the Parliament on Thursday when he was not present in the Chamber to defend himself. “Yesterday, Hon. Kanchana Wijesekara stated my involvement in the legal action taken on the provincial elections. I would like to mention that one of the petitioners, Rajapaksege Keerthi Karunarathne Kumara, is in the Panduwasnuwara electorate, which I became the organiser of almost four and a half months prior. Kumara was not engaged in politics with me. But I had to put his name on the list respecting a request received from the village level to fill in the vacuum created by Sunil Jayaweera joining hands with Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna,” explained Minister Jayasekara trying to keep his name out of any involvement in the incident.

The Minister claimed that until the petition was filed, he was not aware of Kumara becoming a signatory and the involvement had been conveyed by a third party. “Director of Caffe Keerthi Thennakoon mentioned the name and the Panduwasnuwara electorate which led me to investigate. I contacted Kumara and he responded that his signature was placed as per a request received from a former politician,” he added.