by Zacki Jabbar

With the UPFA deeply divided over the issue of prime ministerial candidate, the people were certain to vote in large numbers for the United National Front for Good Governance at next month’s general election, UNP leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe predicted yesterday.

Addressing a UNFGG election rally in Katana, Wickremesinghe said that the failure of leading figures in the SLFP-led UPFA to listen to President Maithripala Sirisena’s advice, had led to the entire coalition being treated like a joke.

While a section of the UPFA claimed that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was their prime ministerial candidate, President Maithripala Sirisena had categorically stated that he would appoint a more deserving senior in the SLFP as Prime Minister if the UPFA were to win the Parliamentary Polls.

With such confusion prevailing the masses would ensure the election of a UNFGG government, since it not only spoke with one voice but had also delivered on most of its Jan. 8, presidential election pledges, the UNP leader noted.

He said that the SLFP which could not even agree on holding a Central Committee meeting was deeply divided and that would impact negatively on its polls campaign. Leading figures in the UPFA, Wickremesinghe observed, were busy fighting personal battles on public platforms while their ship had already begun to sink and would be completely submerged on August 17. On the contrary the UNFGG was in total agreement as to who its prime ministerial candidate was.

The UPFA nomination list has many candidates who have been accused of corruption, murder, rape or some crime or the other. Rajapaksa and his corrupt henchmen were attempting to grab power so that they could escape from the clutches of the law, he noted adding that all their designs would be defeated by the people who were clamouring for justice.

Wickremesinghe emphasized that investigations into the massive corrupt deals that had occurred under the Rajapaksa regime would be continued after regularizing the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit.

Courtesy:The Island