Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Monday, 12 February 2018 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday warned that the public must be prepared to accept the repercussions of Saturday’s Local Government (LG) election but was upbeat of its own performance, insisting it had managed to increase support despite bagging fewer seats than last time.
Addressing a media briefing at its party headquarters yesterday, JVP leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the election had allowed a defeated “evil force” to rise again.
“The results of this election have showed that the masses have rejected the incumbent government as they had acted contrary to the change the people voted for on 8 January 2015. Similarly, the evil force that was defeated at the 2015 election has been given another opportunity to rear its head once again through this election,” he said in reference to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his newly-formed proxy political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
He said the former President and his proxy party had used the anti-government sentiments of the masses to their advantage.
“It is a force that stole from the people, illegally ousted Supreme Court judges, bombed media institutes, assassinated journalists and used any method to consolidate their corrupt power. They have managed to rally around the people’s opposition to the incumbent government and exploited it to come ahead in this election.”
Pointing out that local government authorities were the government institutions the public most closely engages with, he cautioned that the people should be ready to be held accountable for the misdeeds of those voted into power on Saturday.
“Work carried out by local authorities greatly impacts the day-to-day lives of the masses. Similarly, inaction, corruption and fraud within these councils will also have serious effects on the people. If the people have voted for individuals with bad political agendas and economic policies, then they must be ready to be held accountable for voting them into power.”
In addition, accepting that the Local Government election had not achieved the desired results for the JVP, its leader noted that the party had managed to get far more individuals elected compared to the 2011 LG elections.
“At the 2011 elections we only had 72 JVP candidates elected but this time around we have far more wins. In 2011 the JVP only had one councillor each in the Colombo and Kaduwela municipal councils. This time we have six in the Colombo MC and five councillors in the Kaduwela MC. We have also increased our vote percentage and number of votes in comparison to the 2015 election as well,” he said.
He then thanked the many artists and professionals who supported the JVP to achieve positive results at the LG election.
