by Kamal Bogoda-18/10/2014
Leader of the Democratic Party (DP) and former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka yesterday said that depriving him of his right to exercise his franchise by the Elections Commissioner with a presidential election on the horizon demonstrated that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was scared of facing him in a presidential contest.
Addressing a news conference at Kotte, the war winning general challenged President Rajapaksa to face him at the forthcoming presidential election.
"The Democratic Party will not give in to the repressive action of the President and his cohorts and there are persons in our party who could garner more votes than I and we will take a decision to field one of them as a presidential candidate if the need arises and the Democratic Party will do everything necessary to oust Rajapaksa," Fonseka vowed.
"I will complain to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva about the injustice meted out to me by the government and we have more than sufficient evidence for the purpose," he said.
"My name was in the voters list of 2013 and 2014 as well and when I spoke to the Elections Commissioner, he said that a person would lose his or her right to vote only if he or she served a two year prison term.
Though the Supreme Court sentenced me to a 30 month prison term, the President saw to it that I was released after 20 months of imprisonment, hence I did not lose my right to vote," Gen. Fonseka said.
"The Elections Commissioner has sent a letter claiming that I have been deprived of my voting rights on the advice of the Attorney General," the DP leader said.
The Elections Commissioner was a scarecrow who didn’t know what his duties were; he didn’t render any service to the public to deserve the salary he was drawing and he was a disgrace to the people Ambalangoda, Fonseka said.
