By Rathindra Kuruwita

The government was doing everything in its power to put off the Local Government elections, Attorney-at-Law, Sunil Watagala said in Colombo on Thursday.

“The election commission will call for nominations at the end of the month. The government is creating bogeymen to make people think that an election cannot be held. You already see some ministers talking about intelligence reports warning of threats to national security,” the JVP lawyer said.

Watagala said that the Ranil-Rajapaksa administration knows that they will suffer a humiliating defeat if there is an election.

“They are trying to convince people that they have a firm hold on power. But this illusion could not be maintained once they fail disastrously at the local council elections. The Ranil-Rajapaksa administration does not have the confidence of the Sri Lankans or the world. That’s why we have not been able to obtain any assistance from a single country,” he said.

Meanwhile, national organieer of the Socialist Youth Association (SSU), Eranga Gunasekara said that the people of the country will soon chase away the Ranil-Rajapaksa administration. The time and energy of law enforcement officials are spent on hounding dissenters while crime is rising at an alarming rate, he said.

“Ranil is having an ego trip. But everything is collapsing. He has no plan but to tax people, take loans and sell national assets. One good thing that has come out of this is that the patriotic pretensions of the Rajapaksas have been exposed,” he said.