By Walter Jayawardhana

Declaring that the forthcoming Presidential election is considered a referendum to oust President Rajapaksa and his family from power former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his party the United National Party has decided to support the common candidate General Sarath Fonsekeka .

Coming from a party working committee the leader of the UNP, which is the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s main opposition party said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”We will be considering this election as a referendum to oust President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa and his family from power and thereafter call for parliamentary elections.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

The second largest opposition party the JVP also said earlier that it would be supporting General Sarath Fonseka who spearheaded the army campaign to crush Tamil Tigers for the first time after a thirty year war.

Two weeks after the defeat, 58 year old Fonseka was retired from the Army CommanderƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s post and given the position, Chief of Defense Staff, largely a ceremonial position. Apart from the JVP he is backed by 11 small political parties. He served as the Army Commander for four years.

Election date has not been announced but the government says it will be held in January.