UNP, JVP will learn good lesson at PC Polls - Healthcare Minister

Chaminda PERERA

Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva yesterday said the people will teach a good lesson to the UNP, Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya and the JVP at the upcoming Provincial Council Elections in the Central and North Western provinces.

The Minister at a press briefing in Colombo said UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will record his 15th defeat at this election and the UNP will have to suffer a serious set back since its founding in the early 1940s. "The people have rejected the UNP's fragile policies at the recently concluded NCP and Sabaragamuwa Provincial elections and new UNP Chairman Gamini Jayawickrama Perera's remarks that the UNP support to Government's endeavour to crush the LTTE terrorism is in stark contrast of what the UNP leadership utters", the Minister said.

"We are happy to witness patriotic elements in the UNP though belated", he said.

The Government has never hesitated to face elections which was a sign of well established democracy. Our policies and the method of governance should be tried and tested in the people's court time to time to ascertain people's popularity, the Minister stressed.

He said the Government would not hesitate to face any kind of election at any given time as people have placed their faith in the Government. "Election is a yardstick by which people's wish is tested. "The Opposition is in the practise of levelling baseless allegations against the Government to hide its ineffectiveness and incompetence, he said.