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The UNP yesterday accused the government of denying it an opportunity to prepare for forthcoming elections for Vavuniya Urban Council and Jaffna Municipal Council.
The main opposition party said the government shouldn’t take advantage of the situation in the North to obstruct legitimate political opposition.
UNP MP and Vavuniya District Organiser Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena told The Sunday Island that the government hadn’t allowed him to visit Vavuniya even after Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake had requested the Defence Ministry to do so. Responding to our queries, he urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa not to thwart a UNP campaign in the North on the pretext of so called security concerns.
He said that the police at Medawachchiya, north of Anuradhapura on the Kandy-Jaffna A9 had restricted civilian movements towards Vavuniya. Acknowledging that there could be legitimate security concerns to check movements northwards of Medawachchiya, the MP said that government shouldn’t have called for local government elections if it couldn’t guarantee freedom of movement for opposition political parties.
He said that the government would have to facilitate their travel to Jaffna by air as the A9 remained closed to civilians though the overland route had been restored over two months ago.
The MP said that he had a meeting with the polls chief to secure access to the North. He pointed out the absurdity in taking visiting foreign dignitaries to welfare centres while denying access to opposition MPs. He said that the UNP wouldn’t be scared to face the government at LG polls in the North. If the ruling coalition believed that it had an advantage over the opposition due to the armed forces’ triumph over the LTTE, the President should give the opposition a fair opportunity to campaign in the North.
