President Anura Kumara Dissanayake didn’t appoint many newcomers as ministry secretaries because someone not used to the inner workings of these institutions would take a long time to get to know the institutions at a time when Sri Lanka gears up to hold a general election, Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, Secretary of National People’s Power (NPP) said yesterday.

Previous governments often packed ministries with their supporters, but that was not the NPP way, he said.

“We thought we should use existing secretaries. We have a body of intellectuals who are experts on all the fields. They will work closely with the secretaries. We believe that we can deliver things people want immediately with these secretaries,” he said.

Dr. Abeysinghe said that the NPP has been gearing up for elections from October 2021. The NPP is ready to keep the current momentum going for another two months and that the party is ready to go on the campaign trail again, he said. While no candidate was able to reach 50 percent of the valid vote last week, historic precedence shows that the party that wins the presidential election wins the general election held next.

“We moved from 3 percent to 42 percent. We have overcome the toughest part. A lot of misinformation about the NPP was spread during the campaign. Some people are uncertain about what the NPP is, especially in areas where we didn’t win. We have a serious task of dispelling misconceptions and countering misinformation. Once we dispel the misinformation, we will be able to obtain adequate votes at the forthcoming general election,” he said.

Dr. Abeysinghe said their political opponents had carried out a systematic disinformation campaign against them for over a year and many people were convinced that the NPP would destabilize the country. However, most of these fears have been dispelled within 72 hours of the election, he said.

“In the next two months they will get a better understanding of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and his cabinet. The people will also see how the NPP will behave while they are in power. I think a lot of people will change their minds in the next two months,” he added.

Dr. Abeysinghe said while there is a lot of interest among the NPPers about contesting the coming general election, there will not be infighting among party’s candidates in the run up to the coming general election. Talking about whether the NPP will align with other political parties to face the general election, Dr. Abeysinghe said that the party has not had any discussions with any political party after the conclusion of the presidential election. The NPP did not come to any agreement with other parties during the presidential election campaign and the people expect the party to continue same practice, he said.

The NPP secretary added that Anura Kumara Dissanayake is the first Sri Lankan graduate from a state university that was elected by the people as the executive president. Dr. Harini Amarasuriya is the first academic appointed as prime minister.

Dr. Abeysinghe added that Sri Lankan women were a pillar of the NPP victory. One of the biggest takeaways from the NPP victory is that they have politically empowered millions of Sri Lankan men and women. “They have moved beyond being voters to citizens. Women were especially mobilised only as political tools by establishment political parties. There will be many women in our nomination lists,” he said.

Commenting on the three-member cabinet of ministers that was appointed on Tuesday (24), Dr. Abeysinghe said they initially wanted to establish a four-member cabinet.

“The gazette was released announcing that Lakshman Nipunarachchi has filled the vacancy created by NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected president. However, he cannot be sworn in as a minister before he was sworn in as an MP. There were two opinions on this. However, our motto has been that law should be equal for all. We didn’t want to take a chance, so we decided to go with a three-member cabinet,” he said.