Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara emphasizes that the opposition parties who claim that the presidential election is being postponed are saying that it is because their rallies are collapsing. The minister stated this while participating in a workshop held today (19) for journalists in Kalutara district.
“When there is nothing to do when their waves collapse, the presidential candidates in Sri Lanka have started issuing statements asking what will happen to our security when Donald Trump is shot.
Sometimes, when their popularity collapses, when their popularity is lost, we have seen shows that put on threats to their lives. The President gave an answer when he tried to put on these kinds of shows and issue statements at various places. That is to appoint a committee of the cabinet to look into the security situation of each of them. An expert team was appointed for it. If a presidential candidate or a former president has a security issue, the president decided to use all the state security programs and intelligence agencies to provide maximum security.
Because when their journey breaks down, when they think that they have to go back to the three percent of this country in three more days, and when they think that they have to go to the forest of Yala in three days as usual, the people get worried. We don’t care about that worry. The legal answer was given when the election was postponed to avoid that panic. When such accusations came, we gave the legal answer. That is why we are working to provide the necessary security through that committee as much as anyone needs. Because we will not allow people to do this low politics by leading people on the wrong roads and deceiving them again,” the minister said.
This media workshop was held in conjunction with the ‘Jayagamu Sri Lanka Kalutara’ district program and the minister further said:
“The President gave instructions to the Cabinet and through the Attorney General, we informed the court that this period is five years. And it didn’t stop there. Others went to the court. This started to become a joke. That is, they went to the court and asked if it was five or six years. There is something divisive here. There was a situation, that is, when the 19th Constitution was being amended, when Mr. Maithripala Sirisena was there.
There, a big controversy started to arise on the question of whether or not a presidential election would be held after six to five years. But we the cabinet decided that if there are so many problems, we should amend the constitution and let’s say that this is for five years. Let us show that the five is the government’s opinion. Many people were afraid that if we take the decisions of the cabinet and issue the gazette notification, this will go to a referendum again, and this is an attempt to postpone the election.
Therefore, the President gave instructions without issuing gazette notices, we have expressed the government’s opinion and the cabinet has clearly stated that the decision is for six years and not five years. Therefore, they have considered the opportunity to go to the parliament one day and make it permanent. Before this, no gazette was even done – because many people started to see crocodiles saying that they are trying to postpone these elections. We have no need to postpone elections. Earlier, President Ranil Wickremesinghe mentioned that the election will be held on the scheduled date. Also, it should be mentioned at this time that the president has informed the court through the cabinet and through the attorney general through the cabinet.
In a few days, when the election heats up, the rallies of those who held rallies saying ‘that wave is this wave’ for so many days have now started to decrease. Now the wave of the people of the country joining the country has started to increase. That means that the wave of leaving aside party, color, race, caste, religion and party politics and joining together for the country has increased today. The wave of people who can build this country, let’s get together, is the one that has arisen today.
Those who said no when asked to accept to build the country, those who were afraid to build the country, those who were afraid to build the country and played politics, people were leaning against the walls, those who were under pressure and hoped to do politics through it are now upset. Because the country’s economy has experienced a revival. The economy has come forward from where it was in the country. People have got rid of the problems in the country.
There is still more to do. But we have done some work and have shown the results. The opinion of the people of the country has started to be expressed. The people have started praising the economic policies taken in the country, saying that only if we move forward in this way, we will be able to build our country. At this time, the opinion of the government, which was nine percent, has increased to thirty percent. When we can’t wait for this, we don’t know whose money it is for so many days, those who have been holding big meetings for about one and a half years by storming meeting platforms and drawing people from buses have realized that their wave has decreased by now.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe did not do politics for so long. He did the country building program. He had no desire to do politics. He wanted to do the program to build the country. But others did politics. He was brought up after doing politics. Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe won over the people by organizing the work to build the country. It is not done by politics,” the minister said there.