{"id":86973,"date":"2019-04-04T16:10:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86973"},"modified":"2019-04-04T16:10:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:10:27","slug":"candidates-for-the-next-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/04\/candidates-for-the-next-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"CANDIDATES FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

According\nto political analysts and journalists, several candidates have named as\npotential aspirants for the next presidential election in Sri Lanka, which will\nbe scheduled to hold ending 2019. The major shortcoming of such ad-hoc naming\nis that not a single journalist names a woman candidate and it seems that\nalthough political parties promote equality between men and women, not a single\npolitical party has promoted a female candidate for the leadership. SLFP had\nwomen leaders but UNP never had a female leader. The prospective leader of UNP (Ruwan\nWijewardane) is not only male but also a strong right-wing character with\ncapitalist ideology, however, he would be the best choice to attract the\nsupports of Buddhists as nearly 76% of total votes of Sri Lanka consists of\nSinhala Buddhists. Primarily, it should be noted that the determinants of the\nnext presidential election are Sinhala Buddhists no other group.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis a widely spread secret that UNP has two choices, Mr. Karu Jayasoorya, and\nMr. Sajith Premadasa, there are some hints that UNP might finally agree to\ncontinue Mr. Maithreepala Sirisena with high risk when looking at the past\nevents. All people are risky personnel to the future leadership of UNP and Mr.\nRanil Wickramasinghe associated with the right-wing group may have a plan to\neliminate Mr. Sajith Premadasa and Mr. Navin Dissanayake from leadership\nambitions after the next presidential election and open a freeway for Mr. Ruwan\nWijewardane to UNP Leadership.  Although\nexecutive authority has been the wish of Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe since 1978,\nthe presidential position was not interested due to several reasons and the\nmajor reason was his inability to face an island-wide presidential election\nwith conservative ideology in a society where radically promoting socialist\nviews against feudalism. If he wanted it, he could have taken it after Mr. J.R.\nJayewardene, but he was not keen on it or opted to be as he may have done a\nself-assessment on his abilities. There may have been a plan of the family to\nwork a different way with a secret strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\nKaru Jayasuriya is an old man, who has no capability to lead the country and\nproved that he is good for a henchman job of Western forces than an executive\npresidentship after incidents in October 2018 and another significant problem\nwith his candidature is that he will be risking the plan of Mr. Wickramasinghe\nfamily for the leadership of Mr. Ruwan Wijewardane. If Mr. Karu Jayasuriya\nbecomes the president it will be the end of hopes of Mr. Wijewardane as Mr.\nKaru Jayasuriya’s son in law, Mr. Navin Dissanayake would be the choice to the\nleadership of UNP. On this background, Mr. Wickramasinghe would not prefer to\nselect him as the presidential candidate of UNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\nSajith Premadasa has serious weaknesses. \nThe major weakness is, he is attempting to use his father\u2019s credibility\nas his work than showing his abilities and demonstrating his work and skills.\nWho would regard Mr. Sajith Premadasa as a good policy man in the modern\nelectronic era for building few houses like matches boxes? If he wants to be\nthe hero of poor people, he should fundamentally work to eliminate poverty and\nthe policy process would support to society without poor.  Did he do such a vigorous policy action?  Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa had a humble\nbeginning and excellent experience working with Mr. Gunasinghe and understood how\nto work with poor and attract popularity. \nAs a Deputy Minister in Dudley Senanayake government in 1965 showed\ncolors and actively participated in the 1977 election campaign, he attracted\nexcellent popularity to become president after Mr. J.R. Jayewardene.  During his childhood, Mr. Sajith Premadasa\nmisused the resources of the London branch of Bank of Ceylon and his mother and\nhis sister have so corrupt past.  They\nare highly negative points for attracting votes. Mr. Sajith Premadasa cannot\njust become Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa Sr, just taking over his father\u2019s work to\nhis name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto news reports his own work has tremendous faults. He is working in Hambantota\nliving a luxury life in Colombo and there are jokes about his behavior and work,\nif a supporter is tall, he would be suitable for a security job and if the\nsupporter is shorter, he would be a laborer. \nIt reflects the stupid attitudes and thinking pattern of Mr. Sajith\nPremadasa as he doesn’t understand how to determine the knowledge, skills,\nexperience, and qualities of the person considering for employment.   He has no understanding of foreign policy and\nrelations (may be expecting to use the service of Dr. Dayan Jayatilake) and he\nhas not expressed how he is going to reconcile the relations between India and\nChina. This is a significant criterion for attracting votes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\nSajith Premadasa is also a threat to the dream of Wickramasinghe \u2013 Wijewardane\nfamily regarding the leadership of UNP. \nIf Mr. Sajith Premadasa becomes the president of Sri Lanka it would be\nthe end of the future of Mr. Ruwan Wijewardane, like Senior Premadasa id in the\npast, Sajith will eliminate all roots of Wickramasinghe \u2013 Wijewardane family. Based\non points discussed above neither Mr. Karu Jayasuriya not Mr. Sajith Premadasa\nwould not gain the blessing of Mr. Wickramasinghe to be UNP candidate for the\nnext presidential election. Most probably, the preference of UNP would be to\nMr. Sirisena with UNP and SLFP coalition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\npeople believe that Current president Mr. Sirisena would be a candidate. It is\nhighly unlikely due to several reasons. After winning in 2015, he publicly\nstated that he will not contest the next presidential election and if he breaks\nthe promise, people would like to vote for him. It would be a major point in\nthe election campaign.  He cannot attract\nvotes from minority communities and religions as he broke the promises given\noriginally to them. The work of controlling illicit drug is a part of the duty\nof the forces and the president has taken the job into his has and shows that\nhe attempts to get a credit of the role. \nSri Lanka has fundamental economic, political, social and cultural\nissues and how he is going solve such problems, his nature id pushing the\nproblems to educated people and bureaucrats, however, people expect how he is\ngoing to give leadership.  He also cannot\nget the support of SLPP and he will be subject to lose from a large sum of\nvotes than the defeat Mr. Rajapaksa in 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nunconfirmed reports in Sri Lanka state that Mr. Kumar Sangakkara would be a\ncandidate, despite he denial as he has been a popular Cricket player in the\ncountry and some corrupt politicians and TNA groups promote him purely\nadvantage of them.  Mr. Sangakkara cannot\nbe compared to Mr. Imran Khan due to several reasons, Mr. Imran Khan showed his\ntotalitarian attitudes as a cricket captain and he is a character that possible\nto go to own targets and Pakistan Military preferred him as a leader and Mr.\nImran Khan has been in Pakistan controversial politics for a long period. His\ndictatorship attitudes were criticized in Australia when he was playing for the\nWorld Cup.  Has Mr. Sangakkara such\nattitudes and would people of Sri Lanka be agreed with a person, who has\ndictatorship attitudes and helpful corrupt people? What is his plan political,\neconomic, social and cultural plan?  He\nmight be an ideal candidate for henchman duties of Western countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\nSangakkara has not been gained experience in Civil or Military duty in Sri\nLanka and what are his attitudes toward the economy, political and social\nissues. Does he agree with a new constitution and federalism betraying majority\nvoters (76%) in the country for less than 12% of Tamil votes?  Can he give leadership for cabinet minister\nlike crabs? These are issues in relation to the candidature of Mr. Kumar\nSangakkara.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\nGotabaya Rajapaksa has popular support from SLPP, SLFP, UNP and Minor\nparties.  He also has strong support from\nSinhala Buddhists and Sinhala Christians.  He has experience as  Military personnel and Civil\nadministrator.  He also has experience in\ninternational politics and he contributed to the Rajapaksa regime as a policy\nman and his attitudes toward the economy, politics, culture, and religion are\nappreciated by people of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nwhat is his policy toward the current issues in the country?  He has already expressed his views on\nmodernization.  However, he needs to show\nhis qualities as a public figure. The candidature of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is\nno threat to Mr. Wickremasinghe’s plan for the leadership of UNP.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS According to political analysts and journalists, several candidates have named as potential aspirants for the next presidential election in Sri Lanka, which will be scheduled to hold ending 2019. The major shortcoming of such ad-hoc naming is that not a single journalist names a woman candidate and it seems that although political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86973","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=86973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}