{"id":54151,"date":"2016-04-27T15:57:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T22:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=54151"},"modified":"2016-04-27T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T22:58:26","slug":"prez-all-out-to-foil-mrs-comeback-bid-vows-to-adopt-constitutional-and-legal-measures-to-achieve-that-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/04\/27\/prez-all-out-to-foil-mrs-comeback-bid-vows-to-adopt-constitutional-and-legal-measures-to-achieve-that-end\/","title":{"rendered":"President Maithripala Sirisena all out to foil predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s comeback bid … vows to adopt constitutional and legal measures to achieve that end"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

April 27, 2016, 12:00 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday declared that his goal was to thwart his immediate predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s bid to return to power.<\/p>\n

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was meant to scuttle his predecessor\u2019s political project, the SLFP leader said.<\/p>\n

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President Sirisena was responding to a query by The Island<\/i> at a media briefing at the President\u2019s House. The President emphasised that he would achieve his objective through constitutional and legal means. Underscoring the pivotal importance of punishing those who had been found guilty of wrongdoings, the President said that he would take all possible constitutional and legal remedies to defeat corrupt as well as scheming elements.<\/p>\n

The Independent Commissions established in accordance with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution would play a crucial role in ongoing efforts to create a righteous environment.<\/p>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena launched a scathing attack on former Economic Development Minister and ex-SLFP National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa. Alleging that the former SLFP strongman had been distributing bundles of money among supporters to bring people to the Kirulapone May Day rally organised by \u2018disruptive\u2019 and \u2018corrupt\u2019 elements, the President said that he was in a quandary as to how those funds had been raised. The President castigated the former Economic Development Minister over his current role organising the May Day rally for the Joint Opposition.<\/p>\n

Referring to the period leading to January 2015 presidential polls, the President said the then ruling clan had sidelined almost the entire Cabinet and parliamentary group by late 2013\/early 2014. There had been regular meetings on Wednesday mornings at Temple Trees where crucial decisions were taken, the President claimed, alleging that the ruling clan deprived ministers of an opportunity to take part in the decision making process. According to the President, breakfast meetings were attended by five members of the ruling family.<\/p>\n

The President alleged that in the run-up to the last presidential polls, the former Economic Development Minister had launched a special project at the expense of his ministerial colleagues. At the then minister\u2019s behest, District Secretaries had organised district-level functions to coincide with the release of funds allocated to districts, he said. “The then ministers and other members of parliament weren\u2019t given a role to play. Ministers weren\u2019t given an opportunity to address meetings.”<\/p>\n

Claiming that the vast majority of members had resented the then ruling clan\u2019s strategy, President Sirisena said that senior ministers went to the extent of boycotting meetings organized by District Secretaries. The former Economic Development Minister used to address respective meetings for 45 minutes to one hour after District Secretaries at the expense of other elected representatives.<\/p>\n

The President said some had conveniently forgotten the situation in the country prior to what he called the January 2015 revolution.<\/p>\n

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had been enacted exactly one year back, but the media had completely forgotten the enactment of the vital piece legislation, the President said, adding that he met members of the National Police Commission (NPC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday to disucss ways and means of ensuring their smooth functioning.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging that independent commissions experienced difficulties, the President revealed that his advice to their members were to take all problems and issues into consideration but to address at least a few selected issues which required their immediate attention.<\/p>\n

The President said that members of independent commissions should be able to retire happy.<\/p>\n

Responding to The Island <\/i>query what would be his priorities during his first term in office, President Maithripala Sirisena said he would give precedence to taking constitutional and legal measures to thwart the return of the defeated the former ruling clan. The President indicated that blocking the previous ruler was his priority. The SLFP leader refrained from mentioning any other issue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island April 27, 2016, 12:00 pm President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday declared that his goal was to thwart his immediate predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s bid to return to power. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was meant to scuttle his predecessor\u2019s political project, the SLFP leader said. President Sirisena was responding to a […]<\/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-54151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54151","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=54151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}