{"id":35173,"date":"2014-11-21T15:50:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T20:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=35173"},"modified":"2014-11-21T22:37:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T03:37:06","slug":"common-opposition-candidate-maithripala-sirisena-pledges-to-appoint-ranil-wickremesinghe-as-prime-minister-of-his-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=35173","title":{"rendered":"Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena Pledges to Appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister of his Cabinet."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Dharisha Bastians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Opposition pulled off a coup early barely 24 hours after the declaration of snap presidential polls, stealing President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s party stalwart to run as the incumbent\u2019s main challenger.<\/p>\n

\"pic<\/a>

pic via: facebook.com\/UNPofficialpage<\/p><\/div>\n

Maithripala Sirisena, Health Minister and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party \u2013 the main constituent in the ruling UPFA coalition \u2013 quit the Government and announced his entry as the common opposition candidate at what is tipped to be a January poll.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the common candidate,\u201d said Sirisena, who received a tumultuous welcome at New Town Hall in Colombo, when he stepped out of his official convoy. Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne accompanied Sirisena to the venue of the press conference to officially announce his candidature.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Firecrackers and cheers accompanied the two ministers into the auditorium and they were soon joined by Government Minister Duminda Dissanayake and M.K.D.S. Gunewardane who also defected from the ruling coalition to join the opposition campaign. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, largely seen as the chief engineer of the move to field Sirisena, also received an uproarious welcome at the venue. Sirisena was the SLFP\u2019s General Secretary for 13 years.<\/p>\n

The former Health Minister pledged that UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe would be appointed Prime Minister in the new Government if he should pull off a win in the January election.<\/p>\n

Sirisena thanked Wickremesinghe for working to get the UNP\u2019s support for his candidature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will abolish the executive presidency within 100 days of assuming office \u2013 vote for me,\u201d Sirisena asserted at the packed news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country is headed towards a dictatorship,\u201d the President\u2019s Health Minister charged.
\nSirisena said that the country\u2019s economy, law and even his political party was being controlled by a single family.<\/p>\n

President Kumaratunga teared up visibly as she spoke of the dire straits her party was in.
\n\u201cOnce the SLFP was this country\u2019s most democratic party,\u201d she noted. \u201cWe cannot allow this party to be destroyed,\u201d she charged.<\/p>\n

Breaking her silence on a political platform after nine years, Kumaratunga told journalists that her children had been dead against her decision to engage in the opposition campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said Ammi they will kill you. But sometimes you must to do things for the sake of the country,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

The former President, who lost an eye in suicide bomb attack by the LTTE just before the 1999 presidential election, said opposition parties had come together to achieve what she could not during her presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is important now is to save the country,\u201d she charged.<\/p>\n

The common opposition platform fielding Sirisena would focus on two major thrusts, Kumaratunga explained. \u201cOn the one hand, the platform will focus on abolishing the presidency, the other will be on evolving a just solution to minority issues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Scenes at the press conference became emotional several times, as Minister Senaratne pleaded for the nation\u2019s forgiveness for voting in favour of the draconian 18th Amendment to the Constitution. \u201cThis is our way of trying to put that mistake right, by fighting to abolish this system,\u201d Senaratne said, after apologising three times. <\/p>\n

Senaratne said the battle to abolish the presidency that began in 1978 would finally conclude 100 days after Sirisena takes office.<\/p>\n

The former Fisheries Minister hit out against the executive presidency, saying it ruined any man who sat on the chair. \u201cWars may have been ended because of the executive presidency, but it must be remembered that wars have also begun because of it,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n

Senaratne and Kumaratunga warned that all their lives were now in danger because of this decision to support the opposition alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they kill me, carry my corpse and march against this presidency,\u201d the former Minister charged.
\nUPFA National List MP Rajiva Wijesinha who has been a vocal critic of the Government in recent times, also stepped out of the ruling coalition and will act independently.<\/p>\n

During the press briefing, Wijesinha said he received a telephone call instructing him to hand over his official vehicle.<\/p>\n

Sirisena\u2019s decision and the series of defections from a Government that has seemed unshakable electorally in recent years, reveals that the Opposition has tapped into deep discontentment within the President\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes after months of uncertainty about whether the Opposition would be able to name a candidate that could obtain cross party support.<\/p>\n

Discussions were spearheaded by the leader of the National Movement for Social Justice, Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero and a group of activists who took up his cause to abolish the presidency.<\/p>\n


\nMahinda strips defectors of SLFP membership, positions<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Mahinda Rajapaksa moved to strip his Opposition challenger Maithripala Sirisena and other defectors of their party membership in the SLFP and all their posts in his Government.
\nThe Presidential Media Unit said President Rajapaksa has taken the step in his capacity as Chairman of the SLFP.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Duminda Dissanayake and M.K.D.S. Gunewardane will be stripped of their portfolios and will no longer be members of the ruling party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people will decide which is the \u2018real\u2019 SLFP,\u201d Sirisena told a press conference yesterday.
\nThe defectors vowed that more crossovers would follow in the days leading up to the elections. Frantic negotiations are now underway by both sides, Daily FT learns.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: DailyFT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians The Opposition pulled off a coup early barely 24 hours after the declaration of snap presidential polls, stealing President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s party stalwart to run as the incumbent\u2019s main challenger. Maithripala Sirisena, Health Minister and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party \u2013 the main constituent in the ruling UPFA coalition …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena Pledges to Appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister of his Cabinet.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35209,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35173\/revisions\/35209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}