Minister urges UNP to shed backdoor manoeuvres

Rasika SOMARATHNA

Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma yesterday threw an open challenge to the United National Party to compete and win the upcoming provincial council elections if possible without resorting to backdoor manoeuvres such as seeking the intervention of law to postpone polls.

Joining the debate on why the PCs were dissolved Minister Alahapperuma said that the Chief Ministers had no option but to go for the above decision as there was no majority for the ruling party, neither the support of the opposition to carry on progressive work.

Addressing the media regarding the forthcoming PC polls yesterday Minister Alahapperuma said that if the combined Opposition had any sincerity about the claims they make regarding continuing with the abolished councils, they should have shown their combined strength which never happened.

Even in the future if the CMs think that they had no majority and that work is been hindered because of the fact they had every right to go for a dissolution he added while emphasising that even the Supreme Court had upheld the above fact.

Even though it was prudent to hold elections for all PCs on one day this was not possible due to the present security threat where the Government would have to move a large security contingent from conflict affected areas to man elections in the South.

The Minister also observed that the UNP was in disarray due to internal squabbles and that was the main reason behind its reluctance in facing polls at this juncture. He also noted that the UNP had no proper campaign plan and its propaganda was of poor quality during the concluded Eastern PC polls which was the main reason behind their poor showing.

The party’s bane today is the fact that it is ruled by a few Colombo based elites, the Minister said while adding that the UNP had lost the touch with grassroots level.

Commenting on the conduct of polls the Minster welcomed moves by election Authorities to tighten the screws on election malpractices, like the ID number being printed on the polling card while adding that the Government always stood for free and fair elections.