UPFA website launched

Lakshmi DE SILVA

We are today taking another step forward in the Information Technology year 2009 by opening a United People’s Freedom Alliance website during the current Western Provincial Council election campaign. In this era, leaders of other countries use IT for election campaigns and we too will use our website www.sandanaya.lk to ensure our election campaign will lead to a free and fair poll, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He was speaking after opening the UPFA website at a function at the BMICH yesterday.

The President was speaking through satellite communication at the function held to open the website. “we would not be spending large sums of money on propaganda, cutouts and posters but would use IT instead, for the UPFA election campaign”, he added.

At a time when the LTTE terrorists in the North were confined to a small strip of land and were being defeated by the armed forces, the terrorists were holding civilians as a human shield.

The civilians in other areas were also being targeted by them but the Defence Ministry was using IT to prevent the terrorists achieving their objectives.Therefore we had understood how important the use of modern technologies like IT was for the success of the armed forces, the President said.

The Defence Ministry website was being browsed by about one million people daily and the UPFA website we are opening today, will help the public to understand our policy, objectives and the implementation of the program work of the UPFA, the President noted.

Secretary General of the SLFP and Agriculture and Mahaweli Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena said the UPFA had been able to start a new political culture after the Presidential election campaign 2005 under the stewardship of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that ensured no political victimization or vendetta was unleashed against opponents.

UPFA General Secretary and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said within the past three and a half years of the UPFA Government people had witnessed the realization of their hope of defeating the terrorists while implementing new IT communication networks.