UNP takes a dig at SLFP but commits to hold General Election as promised

Thursday, 5 March 2015 00:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

UPFA says UNP rejected their offer of friendship - Susil Gammanpilla says SLFP ban will make Kandy rally a success - Page 2 By Jayashika Padmasiri The United National Party (UNP) yesterday committed to holding a general election, as promised, after the 100-days because the people’s mandate had to be represented in Parliament.

“This is the main reason why we introduced the 100-day program,” UNP General Secretary and Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion Minister Kabir Hashim said at a media briefing. He added that if the election was postponed the UNP would take to the streets. “We are not against forming a National Government but the problem we have is that the SLFP members who are currently talking about the National Government are people who supported corruption and other fraudulent activities while in the former regime. They are the ones who tried to protect the criminals. Therefore, we believe that they have a personal agenda and that they are only concerned about protecting their luxury lifestyles by using the SLFP,” Hashim said. He added that these requests to postpone the election were made by these politicians to provide security for the criminals. “If President Sirisena had lost the election it would have been these people who would be shouting today and at the forefront against him. It was obvious during the presidential election as they were the same people who criticised Maithripala Sirisena when the UNP backed him,” he noted. However, Hashim said the UNP had no agenda to create any rift within the SLFP or any other party as they respected democracy and believed that the stronger political parties in the country were the better it was for democracy. “Whatever problems the SLFP might have within their party, the SLFP has to solve by themselves,” he explained. Commenting about the controversial Port City project, Hashim said that this project had been temporally suspended and that a committee had been appointed to look into the project and a proper decision about the matter would be taken after the report on the project was scrutinised. “If the report presented by the committee proves that the Port City project is not good for the country then we will take immediate measures to permanently stop the project. But what we are looking into right now is to examine what sort of an agreement the previous Government has signed regarding this project and whether that agreement betrays the country or not. The committee is looking into this right now,” he said. Speaking further, the Minister added that the Government would not carry out development through wasteful projects such as the Port City or casinos and instead would seek to develop the nation through more culturally, technologically and economically suitable projects and measures.