SLFP General Secretary says:

Errant candidates to pay price

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Stern action will be taken against errant candidates without considering their status, SLFP General Secretary, Agriculture Minister Maithreepala Sirisena said.

UPFA candidates who breach discipline by engaging in intra-party clashes will not be given positions, the Secretary General said yesterday. Addressing a press conference at the Mahaweli Centre, he said there were no clashes among UPFA candidates contesting the general election in the Polonnaruwa District.

All candidates are able to use the resources like party campaign offices in the district commonly. It had strengthened the unity among all eight UPFA candidates of the district, the Minister said.

He said the UPFA will secure a two thirds majority in Parliament at the April 8 general election. Some UNP and JVP members will also join the government, Minister Sirisena said.

He said such a strong majority in Parliament was needed to carry out the 10 year Mahinda Chintana policy and to amend the Constitution of 1978 including a change of the electoral system. “We had a divided country with two administrations. One was the legally elected government’s administration while the other was the terrorist run police, banks, regional administration of the LTTE,” he said.

It was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who defeated the terrorists and once again brought about the unitary status of the government in an undivided country.

The people joined hands and rallied round the President in the effort to liberate and unify the country. The UNP and the JVP went separate ways and were isolated from the people, the Minister said. He said UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who destroyed the paddy farmer by selling the Paddy Marketing Board was showing signs of a sudden love for the farmer. “He is now querying where paddy is being purchased from. Though former UNP leaders, D.S and Dudley Senanayake developed paddy cultivation, Wickeremesinghe who wanted to fill up paddy lands and give up paddy farming had no business to ask questions about paddy farmers,” he said.

Sabaragamuwa Province Chief Minister Maheepala Herath said the UPFA is an alliance of 21 political parties and groups represented all Sri Lankans without ethnic, religious or other differences.