The biggest problem people were faced with was not the executive presidency and nearly 80 per cent of Sri Lankans in rural areas seeking solutions to their burning problems would not be benefited from a debate on whether or not that institutions should be abolished, UNP front-liner and MP Sajith Premadasa said yesterday. He said he was for retaining the executive presidency but with reduced powers as an institution responsible to Parliament and people.

MP Premadasa insisted that Sri Lanka remain a unitary state. He said he had presented his view in the form of a resolution to the UNP Political Committee on Wednesday and it had been ratified unanimously.

Addressing the media yesterday in Colombo, MP Premadasa said inflation was on the rise and the cost of living soaring. Hospitals were without drugs and patients had to buy drugs from private pharmacies, he said. Many sectors including education and public transport, he said, were in an utter mess.

If the UNP campaigned to have the executive presidency scrapped at the present juncture, MP. Premadasa said, it would amount to hypocrisy in the eyes of the public. Instead, the party had to focus on the problems of the people in dire financial straits, he said.