Opposition pledges of support to reconvene P’ment insincere: SLPP

• Assures President firm on stance of not reconvening Parliament
• Says Opposition falsely accusing Govt. of promoting militarisation

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday charged that the United National Party’s (UNP) requests to reconvene the Parliament so they can assist the Government to raise funds for COVID-19 containment measures were not genuine and would be disregarded.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa, and several former MPs had requested the President to reconvene Parliament to assist the Government in combating COVID-19. Several politicians expressed support to help the Government raise funds.

Speaking to media in Colombo, former SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena said the President had announced that he would not reconvene the Parliament and assured the President will not change his mind. “The Government is capable of continuing efforts to contain COVID-19 even without a Parliament,” he added.

“The Government is doing an excellent job with the support of public officials. The public does not complain about it. Only the Opposition complains about it because they know that the people appreciate the Government’s efforts; therefore they would not have a chance at the General Elections,” he said.

Abeygunawardena charged the Opposition was attempting to tarnish the Government’s efforts with a false accusation that the Government was moving towards militarisation of society. He charged that several politicians were trying to create the impression that the military involvement in maintaining quarantine centres was an attempt to militarise the country.

“It is obvious that several politicians in the Opposition have been trying to show all these efforts were an attempt to militarise the country. However, they should have known that the military comes to the assistance of citizens when the country is a danger. It does not matter whether it is a terror attack or a health issue. The military’s duty is to protect the motherland and her citizens.”

He also said that the Government has been falsely accused of rushing into an election amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. Abeygunawardena reiterated that the Government was only focused on the eradication of the virus and not on elections.