Ranil adamant on getting powerful coalition in place before announcing candidate
Posted on August 25th, 2019
Courtesy The Island
The UNP would not announce its presidential candidate without unveiling the policies of the coalition it would establish, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, on Saturday, at Ankumbura.
The party would first build a powerful political coalition and then field a presidential candidate from that alliance, he said, adding that the unveiling of the coalition’s manifesto would coincide with the naming of its presidential candidate.
“We have both the policies and the candidate. I would like to see the plans and policies of those who ask how we can develop the economy. In 2015, we fielded a common opposition candidate. We have made progress. We need to ensure that these victories are not taken away. Thus, we decided to build a coalition that can retain the democratic gains we made and can establish a modern export driven economy.”
Wickremesinghe said that the building of the coalition had reached its final stage and that they had ironed out differences over some contentious clauses in the constitution. “We will contest the coming presidential election as an alliance. We came together once when the country was facing a massive crisis and we will come together again to take the country forward,” he said.
Wickremsinghe added that the Easter Sunday blasts had led to a crisis in the country. Tourism, which was initially devastated, had recovered. A significant number of people expected the economy and the national security to collapse, he said.
“This also led to a political crisis. The people lost their faith in the government. They lost their faith in politicians. But I would like to stress that we also managed to arrest a number of key culprits within nine hours.”
Wickremesinghe said that the swift action taken by the government had ensured that the terrorist network was broken.
August 26th, 2019 at 3:28 am
In that case get together with JVP and other honest politicians of all other parties. Cut down the greedy wasteful perks enjoyed by the useless politicians who are bleeding the taxpayers. Clean up the country and make the politicians accountable to the people. His man in Kandy never to be seen or contacted after being elected, out there only to make money,could’t care less for the people.
August 26th, 2019 at 3:25 pm
Nimal!!!
JVP and OTHER honest politicians?
They are the MOST HYPOCRITICAL DISHONEST, TREACHEROUS politicians in Sri Lanka! They AID & ABET the CROOKS, HOIST and PROP them up in power, then at election time turn around and criticize them as HOLIER-THAN-THOU! NO ONE TRUSTS the JVP in Sri Lanka! NO ONE! They are responsible for much of Sri Lanka’s AGONY now!
If you think the JVP is honest, I have a suspension bridge at the Verazzanno Narrows in New York State I would like to sell to you! Interested? Going Cheap !
August 30th, 2019 at 12:49 pm
Ananda
I will never forget what AKD said in London where he was urged to sign a contract to build the highway to the airport with some commission attached to it and he said that he refused and came back to the country. That’s good enough for me and they are always against corruption and unlike our established politicians are not approachable.
As a duty to the people our MP for Kandy is never approachable,always in Colombo doing his own business. So these self-seeking politicians has to be driven out.