Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s assertion that he will remain in office after Sajith Premadasa becomes President has boosted Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s campaign, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna said today.
Senior SLPP Parliamentarian Dr Sarath Amunugama said Wickremesinghe had caused a disaster for Premadasa’s campaign and it would give a “big boost” to their campaign.
Addressing a press conference at the Mandarina Hotel in Colombo this morning (31), Amunugama said that although NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa ‘dodged the issue’ several times, the truth has come to light.
“As far as Sajith Premadasa is concerned he dodged the issue from the very beginning of his campaign as to who would be his Prime Minister,”Amunugama pointed out. “But yesterday we had the answer. Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that he was going to be the Prime Ministerial appointee in the event of Premadasa becoming the President. I think this has embarrassed Sajith,” he said.
With this proclamation, the SLPP has received a big boost to our campaign. “According to our research, we found that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was actually about 10 points ahead in the polls. I think with this announcement we will go way beyond that,” he added.
Commenting further, Dr Amunugama said that the Prime Minister has proved to be one of the most inefficient leaders the country has ever produced since independence.
He said that Wickremesinghe had been rejected by his own party when he sought to be the Presidential candidate.
“But his own party decided very clearly that he was not fit for leadership. He was not fit for leadership of his party, he was not fit for leadership for the country,” he said.
“There is a lot of speculation in Colombo that Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to sabotage the campaign of Premadasa,” he claimed.
“The attempt by Sajith Premadasa to hide, obfuscate this issue to somehow deceive the voter that he has not made up his mind, has been exposed before the public in the most brutal way, I don’t think any presidential candidate deserves to be let down in such a brutal manner in the presence of the media in unequivocal terms saying that he is going to be the Prime Minister which means the end of the Sajith Premadasa presidential campaign,” Amunugama added.
(Republic next)