{"id":41159,"date":"2015-02-02T00:29:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T06:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41159"},"modified":"2015-02-01T15:59:01","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T22:59:01","slug":"general-election-president-will-lead-slfp-to-form-a-national-government-with-unp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/02\/general-election-president-will-lead-slfp-to-form-a-national-government-with-unp\/","title":{"rendered":"General election: President will lead SLFP to form a National Government with UNP"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">First Television interview by President Sirisena<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n<p>President Maithripala Sirisena\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0(Jan. 31) declared that though he was the leader of the SLFP, he wouldn\u2019t undermine the UNP in the run-up to the forthcoming parliamentary election but lead the SLFP in balancing act for the benefit of the party. President says SLFP\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be let down. The President asserted that whatever the outcome of the next parliamentary election, the two major parties, the SLFP and the UNP would have to work together \u00a0and form a national government as stated in his policy declaration.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5PqHV_HsPAs?list=PLhAwYRKkzfs8nPI94SAMDsiPzRbI4jGK2&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>President Sirisena stressed that the success of the on-going 100-day schedule aimed at providing relief as well as to bring in far reaching constitutional reforms to restore parliamentary democracy would entirely depend on the support extended by the 127 member strong SLFP\/UPFA parliamentary group.<\/p>\n<p>He further\u00a0assured that his wife and children would under no circumstance use SLAF helicopters unless they accompanied him. The President stressed that the use of SLAF VIP helicopter fleet would be restricted.<\/p>\n<p>The President also prohibited the indiscriminate use of children in functions attended by him, though they could participate in specific tasks such as recital of Jayamangalagatha.<\/p>\n<p>The President called for a change of attitude as well as reappraisal of priorities to overcome present-day political challenges in a more peaceful political culture.<\/p>\n<p>Initiating a new political culture president Sirisena directed that he\u00a0should not be called\u00a0His Excellency\u201d anymore. The President also stressed that there was absolutely no requirement to call his wife, First Lady. The new leader said that he could be called President Maithripala Sirisena and his wife, Mrs. Sirisena.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the need to be mindful of government expenditure, President Sirisena said that in line with an election promise he wouldn\u2019t move into President\u2019s House. Admitting that he was actually not so comfortable living in such a place, President Sirisena stressed that in consultation with the government action would be taken to preserve the President\u2019s House as well as several President\u2019s Houses in the provinces maintained at a massive cost to the taxpayer. The President said that he wouldn\u2019t use any of those palatial houses; therefore a tangible plan was required to protect them and explore ways and means of using them.<\/p>\n<p>The President also revealed that in consultation with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, he cancelled an order placed by the previous government to acquire a special aircraft from the US for the exclusive use of his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa. The President claimed that Sri Lanka was earlier scheduled to take delivery of the aircraft next month. It would have cost USD 16 million and that amount could be now utilised to acquire spare parts required by the Sri Lankan airlines, he said.<\/p>\n<p>While stressing the importance of having security at an acceptable level, the President said that he had directed sharp reduction in the contingent assigned for his security. The previous president had 4,000 security officers and men, President Sirisena said that he would use only 1000 security officers and men. &#8220;I recently instructed senior officers as regards the deployment of vehicles as well as other assets for my protection.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The President said that he would have given up presidency in just four years if the National Executive Council (NEC) had not told him that such action would be inimical to the national interest. The President recalled the circumstances under which previous presidents had failed to keep the promise to do away with the executive presidency. The President said that in accordance with his election manifesto, dictatorial features in the executive presidency would be repealed by April 20, 2015 and a presidency accountable to Parliament would come into being.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on delay on the part of the government to take legal action against those accused of waste, corruption and irregularities, President Sirisena said that the results of the on-going investigations would be known in the coming weeks. The President assured that those found guilty wouldn\u2019t be allowed to escape by siding with the new government.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a query as regards the take-over of the SLFP by him immediately after the Jan. 8, 2015 presidential poll, President Sirisena said that the decision had been made at a meeting with his predecessor at the official residence of Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa. &#8220;My meeting with Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa lasted for about 10 minutes. My predecessor complained about post-election violence. I pointed out that there had been many incidents in the run-up to the poll, while promising to take every possible step to prevent incidents. We had tea and parted,&#8221; the President said, revealing that the venue had been decided by Mr. Rajapaksa. &#8220;Although it was to be one on one, the Speaker, too, participated in the discussion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The swift transfer of control of the party had helped avert a damaging split which could have caused irreparable loss to the organisation, the president said.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing out that the then incumbent launched his campaign eight months ahead of January \u00a0poll, President Sirisena said that the Opposition couldn\u2019t have defeated the Rajapaksas without spearheading role played by the social media. Young boys and girls had played a significant role in the Opposition strategy, the President said, the social media and the Internet had contributed to his victory in a big way.<\/p>\n<p>The President was perhaps responding to his predecessor, who recently publicly acknowledged his failure to counter social media campaign. Former President Rajapaksa said that their failure to realise the threat and take counter measures had caused a debilitating set back to his campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Television interview by President Sirisena President Maithripala Sirisena\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0(Jan. 31) declared that though he was the leader of the SLFP, he wouldn\u2019t undermine the UNP in the run-up to the forthcoming parliamentary election but lead the SLFP in balancing act for the benefit of the party. President says SLFP\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be let down. The President [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}