President Mahinda prepares to drop big lie before nation

Sunday, 13 July 2014

If everything else fails, president Mahinda Rajapaksa is preparing to include the opposition slogan of abolishing the executive presidency in his manifesto of promises and face the presidential election, say political sources. It will only be a promise to win votes and will not be kept, the president himself has said.

Another falsehood is taking its wings these days with the full blessings of Temple Trees these days that the president is intending to hold a referendum in order to extend the term of parliament soon after his reelection. It is an attempt to keep the ruling group together. At the request of the president’s media unit, a national newspaper last Sunday published a detailed article highlighting this fallacy.

When contacted, a former head of the judiciary told us that the president can and has a mandate, even now, to abolish the executive presidency and legalize the new electoral system recognized by all parties through the Dinesh Gunawardena committee. However, the president is seeking another public mandate to abolish the executive presidency in order to commit yet another political villainy, he said.

According to reports, a slogan ‘the leader who does what he says’ has been created as part of this campaign. A minister close to the president has said that this can simply be put as “I promised to save the country from terrorism, I promised to develop the country. I did both. Similarly, I will change the constitution.” A propaganda campaign is being planned to take this false promise to the people. That minister has said that the president can start his campaign by promising, in front of either the Dalada Maligawa or Sri Maha Bodhi, to abolish the executive presidency.