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| Tuesday, 2 March 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| Freedom Alliance dedicated to free and fair election by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Freedom Alliance will present its manifesto to the public within a few days, which is based on Pancha Maha policies to rebuild the nation, Alliance General Secretary Susil Premajayantha told a media briefing at Hotel Taj Samudra yesterday. The Freedom Alliance has given priority to fill 55,000 essential job vacancies in the State sector within three months of assuming power. This will provide employment to a large number of graduates and youth who have passed the A/L Examination, Premajayantha said. The Alliance election campaign has laid emphasis on several key issues such as unemployment, high cost of living, bribery and corruption, law and order and the ethnic problem. The Alliance believes that the people will decide on the election based on these five major issues, he said. "The Freedom Alliance will launch its election campaign to educate the public on the ways and means adopted by the Alliance to address these major issues," he said. The Freedom Alliance commenced its election campaign in Anuradhapura under the patronage of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga last week. At present, the Alliance election campaign is being successfully conducted throughout the country, he added. He said political violence has been unleashed on Alliance supporters in several areas. The Alliance will take legal action to overcome such incidents. "The Freedom Alliance is dedicated to conduct a free and fair election irrespective of violence. As the people are aware, the People's Alliance contested several elections, but none of its supporters has been connected with any violent activities," he said. The Alliance is fielding candidates who have not engaged in acts of violence. Several new faces are included in the nomination lists and the Alliance National List. Premajayantha said that compared with the previous election, more women have been included in their nomination lists. A woman politician leads the Freedom Alliance campaign in the Moneragala district. The Alliance National List has given priority to all nationalities and professional sectors. He said the Elections Commissioner will take a decision on whether the election can be conducted or not in the LTTE controlled areas according to the MoU. JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa said when the MoU was signed, the Prime Minister had not thought that an election would be held in this country in the future. The MoU has clearly emphasised that Government forces or Police cannot enter LTTE controlled areas in uniform. "If Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has a strategy to fulfil LTTE requirements and defend the MoU, he has a responsibility to explain it to the country. If the election is conducted anywhere, the supremacy of the law should be upheld. Conducting the election without fulfilling this requirement will create massive problems," he said. |
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