UPFA tells all parties:

Join Government

Development of the country, objective

Lakshmi DE SILVA

The UPFA yesterday invited all political parties to join the Government in its effort to develop the country.

The country devastated by the war would be rapidly developed if all political parties placed the country before the party, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena told the UPFA press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo.

This election had also brought in new young blood, a number of members less than 30 years into the Legislature. When they join with the maturity of the seniors a new strong development thrust could be achieved to help the country, he said.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political maturity and competency had succeeded in obtaining a strong majority for the Government in Parliament at the general election even under the preferential voting system.

He said it was the largest number of seats in Parliament by a single political group since after the PR system was introduced in 1978.

Premajayantha said according to official results announced so far the UPFA had gained 117 seats from 180 electoral divisions. When the total results including Kandy and Trincomalee districts, will be officially released, the UPFA’s total number of seats would be around 126.

Under the present electoral system, the UPFA would get another 17 seats from the National List giving it a total of 143 seats in Parliament, he said. For the first time in history the UPFA was elected from all 22 electoral districts including the north and east, he said. MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena said the Opposition could never stand on its own but was seeking the support of anti-national forces and persons like Milliband.

They should at least now keep out of conspiracies against the country and change their agenda to a pro-national one and learn to love the country without being tale carriers of non-national and anti-national forces, he said.

JNP leader Wimal Weerawansa said the two powers - the Executive Presidency and the legislature were now combined to implement a rapid development program.