{"id":65755,"date":"2017-05-02T14:02:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T21:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=65755"},"modified":"2017-05-02T14:03:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T21:03:11","slug":"may-day-success-emboldens-jo-to-go-it-alone-at-polls-gl-rapprochement-unlikely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/02\/may-day-success-emboldens-jo-to-go-it-alone-at-polls-gl-rapprochement-unlikely\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day success emboldens JO to go it alone at polls GL: Rapprochement unlikely"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

May 2, 2017, 12:00 pm<\/span>
\nThe Joint Opposition yesterday declared that it would go it alone at whatever the next election, under the leadership of war winning former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

Local government polls are two years overdue while provincial council polls are scheduled in Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Eastern Provinces in September, 2017.<\/p>\n

Declaring that JO\u2019s May Day rally at Galle Face had given a clear signal to the country and the world as to which way the wind was blowing, Chairman of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna former External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday said that the new party would go ahead with planned project.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris was addressing the media at Dr N.M. Perera Centre, Cotta road, Borella. “We are committed to form a new government under former President Rajapaksa\u2019s leadership”, he said.<\/p>\n

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Prof. Peiris asserted that massive public participation at the JO May Day rally reflected the growing resentment towards the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government with the former blindly following UNP policies severely inimical to the country.<\/p>\n

“Give the electorate an early opportunity to exercise their franchise at long overdue local government polls,” Prof. Peiris said. The former law professor said that President Maithripala and his group within the UNP led administration weren\u2019t acceptable to genuine SLFPers.<\/p>\n

JO heavyweights Dallas Alahapperuma (Matara District MP) and National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa (Colombo District MP) warned yahapalana rulers of dire consequences unless they heeded public demand for local government polls.<\/p>\n

MP Alahapperuma admitted that even they had been nervous when the JO accepted the daunting task to organise the May Day rally at Galle Face. But former President Rajapaksa had always accepted overwhelming challenges, Alahapperuma said, adding that securing local government polls was their priority now.<\/p>\n

Underscoring that the JO May Day rally had attracted much more people than the SLFP (Getambe), UNP (Campbell Park) and JVP (BRC grounds) rallies combined, Alahapperuma warned that the government could not indefinitely put off LG polls. The MP said the JO would surround all those responsible for the present situation. Alahapperuma urged the National Election Commission (NEC) to take meaningful measures to hold LG polls and Western diplomatic missions to examine post-May Day situation.<\/p>\n

MP Weerawansa estimated the number of people attracted by the JO at 2 mn, surely the largest ever gathering at any event in Sri Lanka\u2019s post-independence history.<\/p>\n

Weerawansa said the next time those called to Colombo wouldn\u2019t leave. The firebrand politician said that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe couldn\u2019t survive political mine field by having what he called an artificial two-thirds majority in parliament.<\/p>\n

The NFF Leader urged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to accept the ground reality. Urging Speaker Jayasuriya to watch some serial video footage of the Galle Face crowds, MP Weerawansa urged the senior UNPer to give due recognition to the JO.<\/p>\n

Reiterating that twice President Mahinda Rajapaksa had been a victim of political conspiracy also involving Western powers, Weerawansa explained US strategy here and ongoing efforts to explore ways and means of using Sri Lanka as a US military base as well as a major listening post. The MP alleged that former UK High Commission complex that adjoins the American embassy in Colombo had been taken over by the US to set up an intelligence post and the yahapalana government was fully cooperating with the super power.<\/p>\n

Asked by The Island whether the JO accepted the yahapalana government\u2019s shortsighted and wrong policies contributed to public resentment hence the large crowds at Galle Face rather than due to their organizing capabilities, JO members Alahapperuma and Keheliya Rambukwella explained ill fated decisions taken by yahapalana rulers. They explained how yahapalana rulers had earned the wrath of the electorate by taking decisions inimical to the country and the public. A smiling MP Rambukwella said that there had been several meetings at Sirikotha where so called experts decided that the JO could not under any circumstances bring in crowds required to fill Galle Face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island May 2, 2017, 12:00 pm The Joint Opposition yesterday declared that it would go it alone at whatever the next election, under the leadership of war winning former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa. Local government polls are two years overdue while provincial council polls are scheduled in Sabaragamuwa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65755","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=65755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}