Mahinda Lost Presidency Due To His Ego; Maithri Never Promised To Abolish Executive Presidency: Champika

March 22, 2015
Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka says former President Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the Presidential poll despite wielding unlimited powers and resources, due to his ego that rendered him unwilling to implement the kind of political reforms that were demanded by the masses.

“Former President Rajapaksa spent Rs. 43,000 on every vote during the past election. Although his allies boast of the 5.7 million votes he received, each and every vote he obtained was won through heavy voter bribing. Now they blame that defeat on foreign spy services and conspiracies,” Minister Ranwaka said speaking at the JHU’s National Convention held this week.

In his speech, the Minister was also quite critical of the constitutional reforms, the 19th amendment and its contents.

“In President Sirisena’s manifesto, it has been very clearly stated that no tampering will be done on sections of the constitution that call for a referendum. Certain individuals are referring to a ‘schedule’ and various other documents but they are not what we approved. The manifesto is the ONLY document that received the unanimous consent of all the parties that were involved with the common opposition movement,” he said.

He said therefore those who formulated and presented the 100-day program should bear responsibility of implementing the necessary changes according to the schedule set in the program. “We are not answerable to that program – our only focus is on implementing the promises we made and doing justice to the mandate given by the people,” he said.Read More