By Sirimantha Rathnasekera

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is trying to protect his benefactors in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) by plotting to delay the local council elections, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday in Colombo.

“I ask Ranil and his stooges not to delay elections. Sri Lanka has a history of postponing elections and the results of this have been tragic,” he said.

The JVP leader said the new local councils should be established by 20 March 2022 as per election laws.

“The Minister earlier extended the tenure of the councils by another year by using his powers. These councils have now existed for five years. Most of the SLPP local councilors cannot face the public. The President is trying to delay the elections. What he should do is the opposite. He should hold elections at all levels,” he said,

Dissanayake said that the SLPP had come to power, promising to end the political career of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“The SLPP then called Ranil a traitor. However, the SLPP MPs are now propping up Wickremesinghe. This is an abuse of the mandate given to the SLPP. Neither the SLPP nor the United National Party (UNP) has a strong voter base now,” he asserted.

He said the government was pretending that the economic crisis was over and that they were a legitimate government. However, once elections wereheld and the SLPP and the UNP crushed, it would be impossible to maintain this pretence, he said.

Dissanayake said Sri Lankans as well as the international community were aware that the government did not have public support. “This has made finding solutions to the economic crisis of the country impossible.

“No country has come forth to support us. Why would they? They don’t want to lend money or aid to an illegitimate government. The best thing to do is hold elections and allow a legitimate government to take over. The more we wait the harder it will be to overcome the crisis,” he said.

However, the Ranil-Rajapaksa government did not care for the country and was doing everything in their power to cling to power, the JVP leader said.

“They are now trying to postpone the local council elections. The Election Commission has to call for nominations this week. There are rumours that the government will postpone the election after accepting nominations. This will have disastrous consequences for the country. We will be known as a country that doesn’t hold elections,” he said.

Dissanayake said that UNP’s Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and Palitha Range Bandara claimed the government did not have 10 billion rupees for an election.

“They aren’t even MPs. The parliament has control over public finance. The parliament has already allocated the money for the election. So, these stooges must stop their whining. Some government backers claim that an election could wipe the economic gains made over the past few months. What economic gains are they talking about? People are suffering. SMEs will collapse once the electricity tariff is increased in January. Ranil and the clan can’t save the country,” he said.