‘Don’t be misled by reports on elections’ | Daily News

‘Don’t be misled by reports on elections’

Various ideas are expressed and news items are published about the formation of a coalition or caretaker government. Some say that discussions are held in this direction. Some of these stories tend to upset people’s minds. But no one should get agitated about these things because there is a long way to go for an election, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.

He was addressing the Badulla District SLFP Youth Conference held at the Badulla James Peiris hall on October 7.

Minister de Silva said President Maithripala Sirisena had reiterated that he will not call a Presidential election even one day ahead of the scheduled date. When time comes for an election, political forces would field a common candidate or separate candidates of their own to contest the Presidential election, he said.

“Let us then decide as to which candidate we should lend our support,” Minister de Silva said.

“Let us wait till nominations are submitted to contest the Presidential election. By that time, we would conduct open discussions and seminars to decide on the suitable candidate. The SLFP Central Committee will then decide on the candidate who will receive our support,” he said.

The minister said if you took five sections of the media into consideration, they published five different views on the same subject.

The identical news item should appear in all five sections of the media for it to be true. As such, no one should get agitated or upset over various news items as it would only harm unity and their organizational strength, he said.

Minister de Silva said that even though other people were inviting them to join hands with them, they in the SLFP had no intention of joining hands with others, although others are free to join hands with the SLFP.

The UNP and the SLFP were the two major political parties in the country. Unless others come and join hands with the SLFP, they were not prepared to leave the SLFP and join any other party, he said.

Minister de Silva said the President, as their party leader, was rendering a colossal amount of service towards the country’s development. The Gamperaliya programme had ushered in a development revolution in the villages.

The SLFP was taking decisions in the interest of the youth generation in particular because it was their bounden duty to ensure a bright future for the youth.

Uva Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dissanayake and SLFP Youth Federation President Shantha Bandara were also present.


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