20 July 2022 06:54 am
Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe till late last night maintained a closer edge in winning the presidential race today as a number of MPs had pledged their support to him through telephone calls and personal discussions, the Daily Mirror learns.
Till late last night Wickremesinghe had spoken to several MPs including those in the opposition, assuring them of their security and paving the country out of the economic crisis.
While public statements were made from a number of political party leaders to support Dullas Alahapperuma, MPs from within those parties had assured to support Wickremesinghe due to the economic plan he had outlined and the security that he had assured them.
Dullas Alahapperuma on the other hand was also campaigning hard for the presidential race along with his prime ministerial candidate Sajith Premadasa and the two, along with GL Peiris had also attended the TNA meeting held last evening, in a bid to persuade the Tamil MPs to vote for Dullas.
The Tamil Parliamentarians had put forward five demands which were handed over to Dullas and Sajith saying if the duo agreed to these demands then the TNA would vote in favour of Dullas.
TNA sources said the demands included releasing all political prisoners immediately and the Sri Lankan government must cooperate with the UNHRC Geneva Resolution.
Other demands included the release of all private lands, including those occupied by the army and archaeological sites in the North and East, the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) must restart inquiries into missing persons, and a process must start to resolve the Tamil national issue.
The duo had agreed to these demands.
Sajith however did not have it easy with his own party the SJB with many SJB Parliamentarians pulling him up for his decision to withdraw from the presidential race. The Daily Mirror learns that Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka had vented his anger on Sajith and informed him that if he was not confident of winning, he should have let Fonseka to contest from the party. Some SJB MPs, by last evening, were also split in the party's general decision of voting in favour of Dullas.
National People's Power Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake who was also campaigning hard yesterday said if elected, he would limit the cabinet to a maximum of 10 members, seek support from foreign countries and international organisations to stabilise the economy, reduce powers vested in the Executive Presidency and re-initiate the actions against corruption. However, till last night, Dissanayake was falling short of numbers to win the race.
Parliament will meet at 10 am this morning and voting for the new President will kick off in the morning. (JAMILA HUSAIN)