Responding to UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya’s call for a free and fair presidential election, UPFA General Secretary Susil Premjayantha, MP said that the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections would be the first countrywide polls since the liberation of the entire country from LTTE terrorism last May.

Recalling the 1982 District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jaffna allegedly rigged by the then UNP leadership, Premjayantha assured the Opposition that the forthcoming elections would be conducted in a peaceful environment. Addressing the media at the Mahaweli Centre on Tuesday (Nov 24), the Education Minister said that Jayasuriya was already looking for excuses in the face of certain defeat at upcoming elections.

He said that the UNP and its allies had conveniently forgotten what happened to them at local government elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya last August. Although Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, MP had campaigned freely in Jaffna, the UNP polled a mere 83 (4.40 per cent) whereas the UPFA polled 10,602 votes and took control of the Jaffna Municipal Council. The UNP had failed to secure even a single seat, he said adding that the TNA (8 seats), Independent group I (one seat) and the TULF (one seat) had come second, third and fourth respectively.

He said the UNP had not done better in Vavuniya, where the UPFA came third with 3,045 votes and secured two seats whereas the UNP obtained a meagre 228 (1.5 per cent) votes. The UNP had ended up without a seat, the Minister said adding that the Opposition was blind to the ground reality.

Responding to queries, Minister Premjayantha said that the Opposition had not taken into consideration several key factors advantageous to President Rajapaksa. At the last presidential polls in November 2005, Ranil Wickremesinghe had the support of the CWC but that party was now with President Rajapaksa.

CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman, too, attended the media briefing. He said the TMVP’s support as well as Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan’s presence in the government were very advantageous to President Rajapaksa. With 129 MPs in Parliament along with control of all eight Provincial Councils and almost all local government bodies, nothing could go wrong for President Rajapaksa, he said expressing confidence that a historic victory for President Rajapaksa was certain.

Upcountry People’s Front MP Radhakrsihna said that President Rajapaksa could tackle problems faced by minorities during his second term.

National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa said that whatever the strategies adopted by the UNP-JVP combine, President Rajapaksa would emerge victorious by an overwhelming majority. Acknowledging Sarath Fonseka’s role in Sri Lanka’s triumph over LTTE terrorism and the possibility of his being a contender for the presidency, the former JVP heavyweight said that the forthcoming presidential election would give the government an opportunity to defeat the UNP-JVP combine once and for all. It would be a decisive victory and give the UPFA much needed stability to go ahead with development now that the LTTE had been wiped out.

SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena, MP said that the UPFA had won all eight provincial councils, including the first Eastern Provincial Council with 2.6 million votes more than the Opposition, though PC polls could not be held in the North. But now people in the North could exercise their franchise at the presidential election, the Agriculture Minister said.

Minister Sirisena said that the next presidential election would be won by a huge majority of 2.8 million majority, though the difference between the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Opposition (all candidates) was just 28,000 votes. Rajapaksa polled 48, 87,152 (50.3 per cent) against Wickremesinghe’s 47, 06,366 votes (48.4 per cent)––a majority of 1, 80,786.