MR raps JVP for misleading voters over loss of civic rights claim

Former President and Kurunegala District UPFA candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa has criticised JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake for spreading misinformation.

Rajapaksa asserted that Dissanayake had made claims that the ex-President could lose his civic rights. Issuing a media statement, Rajapaksa’s spokesman Rohan Welivita said Dissanayake had claimed at an election rally on Monday that President Maithripala Sirisena had informed him that if a presidential commission of inquiry found that the former President was guilty of having provided money to the LTTE, then he risked losing his civic rights.

Welivita said that the JVP was trying to convince voters that there was no point in voting for the UPFA since Rajapaksa could lose his right to sit in Parliament or seek public office.

“The public should be vigilant about such falsehoods being propagated by bankrupt politicians,” Welivita said in his statement.

“Firstly, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not give money to the LTTE. On the contrary, it was he who defeated the LTTE. It was President Ranasinghe Premadasa who gave money and weapons to the terrorists. Secondly, no Presidential Commission has recommended that Mr. Rajapaksa be deprived of his civic rights. 

“Thirdly, a Presidential Commission of Inquiry cannot deprive anybody of their civic rights unless Parliament passes a resolution to that effect with a two-thirds majority,” the statement added.

Welivita also predicted that it was only the UPFA which would be capable of winning a two-thirds majority at next month’s poll.