Local Govt Polls
Posted on February 11th, 2018
P.A.Samaraweera
There had been an unexpected turnout at the recent local govt polls and as anticipated Mahinda Rajapaksa’s SLPP made a landslide victory. This noteworthy victory should open the eyes of Maithreepala Sirisena (MS) and Ranil, who under the pretext of ‘Yahapalanaya’ entertained the corrupt. The victory is a clear indication that the people are fed up with both of them. MS is an opportunist and he was eyeing the post of PM in Mahinda’s govt. By any chance if he had been offered the post of PM he would have never left MR.
Local govt polls involves the outskirts and the rural folk. During the war it was the rural youth who joined the forces to fight the terrorists. But since this govt came to power their welfare had been completely ignored. Many disabled soldiers had not been paid the promised pensions. They fought for 30 years and MS and Ranil cancelled the victory parade on the advise of western powers and in the name of so called ‘reconciliation’. Further, a number of army personnel had been remanded on various dubious allegations and not charged. During MR’s regime the morale of the army was high. So no wonder they all voted for MR at the local govt polls.
The SLFP-UPFA took a heavy beating at the polls coming third while the JVP came fourth. The UNP which expected to lead was humiliated, coming second. As expected, the Colombians voted for the UNP and won 60 seats. The SLPP 23, UPFA 12, and the JVP 6. Traditionally Colombo is UNP.
During the elections, cracked appeared in the alliance between the SLFP-UNP govt. At election meetings, MS repeatedly said that he is not ready to work with corrupt politicians. In his SLFP frontline as well, there are Ministers accused of corruption. Further, politicians who had been rejected at the polls had been appointed as Ministers. Now that the much awaited local govt polls are over, people are waiting to see what next !
Some say that the SLPP based on the public confidence it had obtained will push for a General Election.
February 11th, 2018 at 10:34 pm
Our voices were heard at last. Good had come back and the evil vanquished. Time has come for yamaballo to leave power and retire from politics. All losers and the rejected politicians must go like gentlemen if not very soon they will be pull out from their seats of power.
Now time for Mahinda Rajapaksa to start new. He should disciplined his people and do some real work to make our country prosperous. His candidates should work for the people not work for themselves and become rich in no time. President Mahinda Rajapaksa must start organising his new party and make new plans for the future. He should not repeat his past mistakes. We trust him 100% and we know his capabilities and strength therefore he should not let us down by doing undemocratic things like Yamapalanaya did. We need a clean, honest government led by our war hero Mahinda Rajapaksa if not Gotabaya Rajapaksa whom we all know his strength and courage to make our Motherland great again.