LSSP statement on Presidential Election:

Great victory to achieve economic and social development

Wimalasiri DE MEL General Secretary, LSSP

The outcome of the Presidential Election as a great victory for the forward march of Sri Lanka and its people to achieve unity and meaningful economic and social development, said the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP).

The PB of the Lanka Samasamaja Party congratulates President Mahinda Rajapaksa on his great electoral victory polling 57.88 percent of the vote and defeating Fonseka the candidate of the reactionary forces by a decisive margin of close to 18 percent.

The LSSP salutes the people of Sri Lanka for not succumbing to the venomous campaign of false-hood and carefully orchestrated propaganda carried out by the reactionary anti-national forces.

Imperialist forces succeeded in forging an unprincipled alliance of opposition parties with contradictory policies, that could never have established a stable government, purely to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa and the progressive policies that he pursued during the last four years.

Highlighting charges of corruption without any credible foundation they called for a change to a ‘cleaner government’, but the change that they really wanted was a return to the neo-liberal policies pursued since 1977 which are designed to enrich the US led Empire and the multi-nationals at the expense of Sri Lanka and her people.

The LSSP thanks the people of Sri Lanka for not having been misled by the false promises and propaganda and for voting to continue with the desirable change that Mahinda Rajapaksa introduced during his first term of office.

It is clear that the forces of reaction were intent on creating a situation of political instability that would enable a rightwing military dictatorship to be established in Sri Lanka where not only human and democratic rights would be sacrificed but also the right to dissent.

This would have been our fate not only if Fonseka won but even if Mahinda Rajapaksa had won by a small majority. It is not a surprise that Fonseka, who had been programmed accordingly, refused to acknowledge his defeat, despite the massive majority, and continued to resort to both legal action and street protest.

These attempts have failed to carry any conviction in the face of the peaceful outcome (even the usual curfew was not declared) and the acknowledgement that it was a free and fair election by both local and foreign monitors, the Secretary General of the UN and even the leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

While it is true to state that a larger proportion of the Tamil voters, and to some extent of Muslim voters, supported Fonseka, the LSSP strongly condemns the attempts being made by racist forces to give the impression that the country is polarized on the basis of majority and minority communities.

While the voting pattern of the minority communities was no doubt influenced by the support given to Fonseka by the TNA, SLMC, DPF and UNP, a major factor was the strong biased campaign carried out by a major section of the Tamil media which discredited the government and its efforts, particularly in the North and the East, and convinced the Tamil voters of the inevitability of the victory of Fonseka.

Despite being misled in this way Mahinda Rajapaksa got more support than when he first contested, and in all areas excepting the North he got more support than Hector Kobbekaduwa when the latter contested in 1982.

Outside the North and the East, President Mahinda Rajapaksa got an overwhelming majority of Christian votes and in Nuwara-Eliya district he increased his vote to 43 percent, while Fonseka received only 52 percent, in contrast to the 70 percent that Ranil Wickremesinghe received in 2005.

The talk of polarization is being promoted by those who want to promote racism and even separatism with a particular focus on influencing international public opinion against the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.