The SLFP-led ruling coalition yesterday said that fielding of Sarath Fonseka at the forthcoming presidential election would not jeopardise incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s re-election bid.

The UPFA said that there was absolutely no dispute over General Fonseka’s leading role in the war against LTTE terrorism though it could not have been achieved without President Rajapaksa’s leadership.

Addressing the media at the Mahaweli Centre, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena recalled international efforts to throw a lifeline to the sinking Tigers during the nearly three-year-old offensive (Eelam war IV) spearheaded by the army.

He said that all constituent parties of the UPFA would stand by President Rajapaksa. The Opposition had failed to realise or had conveniently forgotten that many political parties which supported Ranil Wickrem-esinghe at the last presidential election in November 2005 had now switched their allegiance to President Rajapaksa.

Apart from them, the LTTE breakaway faction, too, had pledged their support to President Rajapaksa along with a section of the JVP parliamentary group. Minister Sirisena and Minister Dew Gunasekera said that the anti-nationalist forces would turn against President Rajapaksa as they did at the last presidential election in 2005.

Minister Sirisena said that at the last election, the SLFP leadership had even denied the SLFP headquarters to the then Prime Minister Rajapaksa. The State media, too, had been prevented from backing Rajapaksa, the Minister said.

Minister Sirisena said that previous leaders had buckled under both domestic and international pressure. There had been instances when Sri Lanka called off offensive action against LTTE terrorism after receiving a mere telephone call from a foreign government, he said adding that the President’s resolve to defeat terrorism irrespective of international criticism had helped defeat terrorism.

Minister Sirisena said that President Rajapaksa would achieve a historic victory over the candidate fielded by the UNP-JVP combine.

Minister Sirisena dismissed Opposition claims that President Rajapaksa would be at a disadvantage due to a rift in the Southern electorate. He said that people would not be deceived as there was no ambiguity regarding the involvement of treacherous political elements in the latest move against President Rajapaksa.

National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa said that no one would question General Fonseka’s role in winning the war against the LTTE. The issue was whether a war hero could stand on a political platform with the likes of Mano Ganeshan, MP. Accusing the Democratic People’s Front leader of getting into LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s swimming pool in the Vanni during the Norwegian arranged Ceasefire Agreement, Weerawansa ridiculed the JVP for throwing its weight behind ‘a gang of traitors bent on destroying the country’.

He launched a scathing attack on SLFP(M) MP Mangala Samaraweera for playing politics with the war effort. Samaraweera had, he said, led a damaging campaign against the military accusing it of human rights violations, particularly operating death squads. The military had been accused of deploying white vans to abduct persons and killing journalists, including Lasantha Wickrematunga, editor of The Sunday Leader.

Weerawansa said that UNP leader Ranil Wickeremesinghe and SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem, leading players in the Opposition, too, had cooperated with the LTTE. The JVP should be ashamed to work with one of the two persons who had allegedly ordered JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera’s execution before his arrest was brought to the notice of the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Weerawansa said that General Denzil Kobbekaduwa could have defeated the LTTE had the then political leadership not succumbed to foreign pressure.

MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena said that nothing could be as bad as the admission on the part of the UNP and the JVP that they could not field a presidential candidate on their own. They were so bankrupt that they had been compelled to bring a stranger to politics to contest presidential polls.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premjayantha said Wickremesinghe could not even dislodge the CMC administration. He scoffed at the JVP-UNP talks of forming a caretaker government in the most unlikely event of President Rajapaksa’s defeat. He said that the Opposition was confused and did not know what it was talking about.

MR to lose over one year of his first term

Responding to The Island queries, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would have to forgo over a year of his first term due to early presidential elections.

Although some have suggested that President Rajapaksa could seek opinion of the Supreme Court regarding this, Minister Sirisena said that the President was ready to sacrifice that period.