If President respects opinion of House, he should first conduct elections, says Kiriella

By Saman Indrajith

The SJB has urged President Ranil Wickremesinghe to prove his claim that he respects the opinion of Parliament by holding elections. Addressing the media in Colombo on Saturday, Chief Opposition Whip, Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella said that the President had said the government would heed only the opinion of Parliament as regards the domestic debt optimisation process. “If so, the Executive should release the funds to conduct elections. The same Parliament passed Rs 10 billion in the last Budget for conducting local council polls this year. If the President respects the opinion of the House he should release the funds allocated by Parliament for elections. He should not be selective in respecting the opinion of Parliament, Kiriella said, adding that the incumbent government would not hold elections as long as its survey reports indicate a debilitating defeat for it. “The of surveys conducted by the government itself have predicted a humiliating defeat for the ruling alliance if the elections are held. If the surveys and opinion polls had predicted otherwise, the government would have gone for elections. As long as this situation remains, it will not dare to hold elections,” Kiriella said.

The government and its ministers were speaking of ways and means of dissolving powers to provinces and grassroots, Kiriella said. “This, too, is not a genuine effort to devolve powers. How could one expect the government to devolve powers to provinces and grassroots when it keeps postponing the Provincial Council and Local Government polls?”