People have accepted President�s policies - GL
Lakshmi de Silva
The people gave a resounding election verdict in favour of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa. All allegations by the Opposition campaign were
completely false and were intended to sully the image of the country. It
was an attempt to detract from the victory of the President, Export
Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said
yesterday.
Addressing the UPFA press conference at the Mahaweli Centre
yesterday, he said victory achieved by the President was not an easy
one.
The people had clearly accepted President Mahinda Rajapaksa�s
policies and it was not just one percent or one and a half percent but a
clear and explicit mandate of over 57 percent of the vote, the Minister
said.
There was a clear attempt to create turbulence and mar the purity of
elections. Rumour mongering was used to divide and damage the country
and now it�s time to put a stop to all this. All parties must join and
go forward to achieve rapid development of the country, the minister
said.
Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe
said it was a cheap political gimmick to claim that defeated candidate
Sarath Fonseka was being held at a hotel in Colombo.
He is free to go anywhere he wishes, he said.
Answering questions from foreign media persons, the minister said
there was a clear procedure of holding elections and announcing results
by the Commissioner who was an independent entity.
�This is not a Banana Republic and we respect the rule of law.
Certain foreign media had been carrying on false propaganda against the
country especially after the defeat of the LTTE terrorists. No one was
being held in the hotel where the defeated candidate Fonseka was
occupying some floors.
The hotel was in a high security zone in front of the Air Force
Headquarters. Some nine deserters from the Armed Forces who had been
working for Fonseka were arrested by the Security Forces opposite the
hotel but no members of the forces moved into the hotel,� he said.
JNP leader Wimal Weerawansa said Sarath Fonseka could not even poll
the votes that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe polled.
He was a defeated candidate and he should now understand that he was
an ordinary citizen of the country and should work for the benefit of
the country. He should not try to devalue the ballot, Weerawansa said.
However Fonseka was a political baby who was brought in as a
substitute for UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
However he was a person who deserved to be honoured as a national
hero and he should accept the verdict of the people, he noted. |
