MR calls for elections to assess public opinion

Friday, 16 September 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today called for the holding of elections to assess public opinion on the current Government.

Rajapaksa said that the whole nation is in a situation of uncertainty and chaos reigns in the administration and financial management of the country.

In the midst of all this, he says the Government has postponed the local government elections indefinitely.

“Having postponed elections, the Government has been engaged in an effort to show that they still have public support by transporting people to political meetings so as to claim that they too have crowds just like the Joint Opposition. This is the first time that I have seen a Government competing with the opposition in this manner. The way I assessed public sentiment was by holding elections. But the present Government is trying to avoid holding elections at any cost,” he said.

Rajapaksa said that he held the 2015 presidential election early for the same reasons that every other President has called early elections. “President J.R. Jayewardene held an election more than a year early in 1982. President Chandrika Kumaratunga held the 1999 presidential election one year early and I too held the 2010 presidential election early,” he said.

He says even though the Government claims that they have won over the whole world, no foreign investment is coming in.

Rajapaksa says the only worthwhile investment taking place even now is the infrastructure projects that his Government initiated.

The former President also said that the Joint Opposition is opposed to the “hybrid” Government and the main challenge facing the Joint Opposition at this stage is to have the indefinitely postponed local government election held. (Colombo Gazette)