Minister of Industrial Export and Investment Promotion and Civil Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga said 6.9 million people who voted for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa are anxiously waiting to form a stable Government to carry forward his vision to rebuild the country and added that that is why they called for an election without any fear.
The Opposition attempted to postpone the upcoming General Election as well. However, the five- judge- bench of the Supreme Court unanimously decided to dismiss eight Fundamental Rights petitions filed challenging the Gazette notification issued by the President on the dissolution of Parliament and the date to hold the General Election, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Minister Ranatunga said generally, it is the Opposition which demands elections. However, the present Opposition represents a group of people who always attempted to postpone elections. We witnessed as to how the former Yahapalana Government deliberately postponed the Local Government elections for two and a half years and nobody knows what happened to the Provincial Council elections.
Minister Ranatunga said there is an urgent need to go for an election at this juncture mainly due to the political instability created in the country during the four and a half year regime of the Yahapalana Government.
There was no political stability in the country as the then President and Prime Minister were moving in opposite directions. As a result, investors kept away and the country’s development came to a standstill. The bond scam was one of them.
“In these circumstances, an election should be held with immediate effect and we are confident that we could secure a two-thirds majority in Parliament. This would pave the way to implement the political manifesto of the President without any hindrance. We hope the majority of the people would also maintain this view,” the Minister said.
He said the Yahapalana Government came to power in 2015 giving false pledges to the people. They destroyed the country during their four and a half years in office.
He said, “At present, there is a huge rift between the UNP and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and both factions are accusing each other and the UNPers have lost their confidence in the party.
They are well aware that the UNP would definitely be defeated at the forthcoming General Election and would refrain from casting their votes. Therefore, we have a better chance of winning the election comfortably.”