by Dasun Edirisinghe
Leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF) and MP elect Wimal Weerawansa yesterday said that if President Maithripala Sirisena had not slapped obstacles in its path, the UPFA would have secured more seats and defeated the UNP at Monday’s election.
He said now the UPFA would function as a strong opposition as it had 95 seats in Parliament.
Weerawansa vowed not to betray the people’s mandate by supporting the UNP in Parliament. The people had voted for the UPFA to look after their interests.
He blamed President Sirisena for having issued statements against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who led the UPFA general election campaign. A letter sent to Rajapaksa in the closing stages of the election had repeated that even if the latter won someone else would be appointed PM. The president had sacked the SLFP and UPFA General Secretaries and appointed others in their place shortly before the election.
All those acts just before the general election adversely influenced the election result, the former Minister said.
He said many UPFA supporters had stayed at home without exercising their franchise duo President Sirisena’s action.
The results of Colombo, Gampaha, Kandy and Kegalle Districts were very unusual and they were still studying what had happened, Weerawansa said.
“Results of four districts are very unusual while we got predicted results in others,” Weerawansa said, adding that however the UPFA had managed to obtain 95 seats.
Weerawansa said that it was useless to join the UNP to form a government as no Opposition had obtained 95 seats in recent history.
He added that the best way was to support the good work of the government while being in the Opposition.