AKD warns President to stop playing games with people’s mandate 

• Says President and Govt. attempting to mask their unpopularity by delaying elections 
• Claims EC did not announce it would call for nominations before 5 Jan. in good faith and did so to give Govt. more time to postpone elections 
• Assures JVP will not allow President to prevent people from exercising their right to vote
• Calls on people to take first step to form a new Government in the country 

Leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said President Ranil Wickremesinghe along with the Government are attempting to mask their unpopularity among the people by delaying Local Government elections. 

The JVP leader said following the ousting of the first Prime Minister of the current Government Mahinda Rajapaksa, it lost the people’s mandate. 

“In 2019 the people voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to oust Ranil Wickremesinghe. He has now become President through the same votes that were against him. Therefore, he has no mandate. Holding Local Government polls or any other vote will only display the people’s valuation of the President and the Pohottuwa. 

“In such a circumstance the Government will not be able to go forward when it is proven that it has no mandate. Therefore, the Government is carefully implementing various strategies to prevent the display of the true mandate of the people,” he said.

Dissanayake also said the President and the Government are also facing a conundrum of how to face a poll. “Should the President’s party and the party representing the Government contest separately or as an alliance? Faced with this issue they are attempting to delay elections,” he claimed. 

Expressing his doubts about the intentions of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka (EC), the JVP leader said the EC has not announced it would issue the gazette calling for nominations by the first week of January in good faith. 

“Instead Punchihewa is attempting to give the Government till the very last minute to attempt delaying the elections,” he said. “They have announced the election dates will be announced on 5 January as the next three days are Government holidays. They are giving the President and the Government the opportunity to hatch a plan to delay the polls even at the last minute,” he added. 

Having exhausted all legal means, Dissanayake said the EC is unable to delay elections any further. However, he revealed there are rumours of the EC attempting to postpone the election further after accepting nomination lists. 

Dissanayake warned that Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government must stop playing games with public opinion. “The President couldn’t even secure a seat in parliament and was rejected by the people. We will not allow a leader such as this to prevent the people from exercising their right to vote,” he said. 

Dissanayake also said no Government that led a country’s economy to destruction has been able to rebuild it. Likening the current Government to Somali pirates that have hijacked a vessel, the JVP leader said the group will only worsen the current crisis. 

“The people must decide that a new Government is needed if we are to come out of this crisis situation. Therefore, all conspiracies to delay elections must be defeated. We warn the Government to stop gambling and playing with the people’s mandate and public opinion. We will defeat any attempts by the Government to postpone elections. We expect the people to come forward to take the first step to form a new Government. We will do our utmost to win the election,” he said.