By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan

The President vowed that he will form a government with the victorious political parties after the 17 August election and he has no intention of appointing Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, adding further that that he would continue to give leadership to the change he ushered in on 8 January with the newly elected members after the general election.

He said that there would be a free and fair election and he will support all the forces to help conduct a clean election. He has to be there for the next five years to continue to work for his country as he had promised.

Speaking to media on the current political developments at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (14) the President said that if the SLFP wins the election there are several senior politicians in the party who can be the prime minister. Former President Rajapaksa who did not allow the deserving seniority get their due posts is now trying again to deny party seniors premiership by attempting to be PM even after completing two terms of the presidency.

He also said that he ignored the corruption allegations mainly to implement the 100 day programme based on the manifesto with Parliament approval.

President Sirisena said that his first intention was to dissolve Parliament on 10 January immediately after resuming as President on 9 January. However, he could not do so as he had to fulfil the task given under the 100- day programme.

“As promised I made Ranil Wickremesinghe PM though the UNP had only 47 Members in Parliament and succeeded in implementing the 100-Day programme that included the 19th Amendment to curtail the excessive powers of the executive presidency,” he said.

He also said that he criticized the UNP for having a Central Bank Governor who is alleged to have a deal with Central Bank Bonds. “I requested the Prime Minister to remove the CB Governor and ask him to step down from the post.”

The President said that when the vast majority of UPFA Members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa should be given nomination and to make him the prime ministerial candidate, he pointedly refused these demands. He had to dissolve Parliament to prevent Mahinda Rajapaksa from becoming Prime Minister by defeating Ranil Wickremesinghe in a No-Confidence motion and entering Parliament as a national list member. Once the nomination and election date were announced, UPFA Members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa be given nomination.

Then he was left with two options. One was to resign from the party leadership. But if he had done that Mahinda Rajapaksa would have become the party president and appointed only his people as candidates for the election leaving out all those who supported the common candidate at the presidential election. To prevent that he decided to retain the party leadership but allow them to nominate him as the candidate, though he is still opposed to this.

This led to political analysts and the media vehemently attacking him as a traitor and betrayer. When he takes all these criticisms in his stride it reflects the blooming of democracy and media freedom which was lacking prior to 8 January. “But you will realize in the near future that my actions were due to my belief that there should be a bicameral party system for the survival of democracy in a country and I always wanted to prevent annihilation of a political party after an electoral debacle, as happen in 1970, 1977 and again in 2010,” the President said.

President Sirisena said that despite many obstacles the governmentformed on 8 January would provide benefits to the people: salary increases to public servants, reduce fuel and gas prices and take effective steps to reduce the powers of the President and transfer them to Parliament, the Constitution Council and other institutions.

The President said that his role in the general election is to ensure that a free democratic impartial election is held and to extend his fullest support to the Elections Commissioner, the Police and the officials for that purpose. “I will remain impartial in the coming election and urge the people to select those who are suitable to march forward with the 8 January mandate, he said.

“After the election results are declared, for the next five years I will take forward the transformation that began on 8 January and continue the same. I am certain that the people will judge me by the end of that period.” President Sirisena appealed to the media to not misuse media freedom and enjoy the blooming of democratic rights and media freedom in the country objectively.

He said that the media should thank him for giving them the privilege to accuse a President and had it been Mahinda Rajapaksa that wouldn’t have been possible. “Mahinda allowed the media to hit at all the MPs of his regime except the Rajapaksa family,” he added.

He also noted that Mahinda Rajapaksa wrote his history as the President who was defeated while the rest had respectfully handed over power to their successors after they completed their tenure.
“All that Mahinda Rajapaksa did were not an attempt to teach the UNP a lesson but me. That is why ever since I became the President he has been holding meetings everywhere.”

“Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat is imminent however. When he was the Executive President he got all his powers because of a weak UNP which helped many to crossover to the UPFA and enriched Rajapaksa to continue to succeed in all endeavours he undertook.”

“My stance has not changed. I have been against all the UPFA decisions all throughout.”

“I opened the door for good governance and in the coming election I don’t anticipate a certain party to win but a good majority to come to Parliament to help me to take the country forward. I am not going to let it revert to what it was before 8 January.”

“I am like the Titanic but did not sink and instead managed to dissolve Parliament.” He further said that he has no dealings with the Former President at all.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today