By Saman Indrajith

JVP/NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday said that victory was assured for his party in any forthcoming election as they had won support, trust and confidence of more than 51 percent of the electors throughout the country.

Dissanayake addressed two May Day rallies of the JVP/NPP in Matara and Colombo. He said: “Our enemies mocked us saying that converting three percent of popularity into 51 percent would be a miracle. That miracle has been achieved. Mustering the trust of more than 51 percent of electors for the NPP no longer is a magic or miracle. It has become a ground reality.

“This is the last May Day we mark under these rulers who ruined this nation. The next May Day will be held under an NPP government. Victory is assured for our party. We must work harder for the next three months to realize our goal for our own government.”

“Today, we have hundreds of thousands of people attending our four May Day rallies in Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Matara and Colombo. We sought government permission to hold the May Day rally in Galle Face. They did not give us Galle Face thinking that our gathering would outscore them. At the end they gave us a road, the CWW Kannangara Mawatha – as the venue.

Thereafter we decided to hold the May Day rally in four places. In a way their depriving us of the Galle Face worked better for our members so that they could attend rallies in a nearby major city instead of coming to Colombo.

“More than 90 percent of them are those who had joined us recently from other parties. The rest are those who have been with us all throughout. There are some who have been attending all our May Day rallies since the JVP resumed marking the May Day in 1995 with public rallies. In NPP we would treat all of them equally.

In addition to those attending our rallies, a similar number or more than that are watching us online in this country or abroad. Not only our supporters but also our enemies are watching our rallies to find mistakes or fault with us.

We have a challenge before us to lead the popularity to the successful end of election victory. In that regard we must take extra precautions to avoid mistakes and not allow any room for negligence. All we need is to work harder than ever in the coming three months. We have the discipline required for the task. We are the only political party with discipline required to bring in changes necessary for the development and betterment of this country.

Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP does not have that discipline. His Tourism Minister Harin Fernando had promised 10 bottles of liquor for every bus transporting UNP supporters to today’s rally of theirs. Ranil could not even find Lankan artistes to sing at the UNP May Day rally today and had to import singers from India. It seems when it comes to the election he would have to bring voters, too, from India.

Sajith Premadasa and his SJB cannot ensure positive change. He has no other line these days than going around talking about a debate with us. Finally, we gave him four days prior to May 15 for the debate. He has responded that he is busy on all those four days. Thereafter we conveyed to his party that we are ready for the debate on any day by May 20. Any day of his preference we can participate in the debate. We will cure his problems for good in that debate to be held by May 20. Even if he does not come forward by May 20, we’ll make sure his brand of politics ends after that day,” Dissanayake said.