Video: Elections only after reforms: Sobitha Thera

12 March 2015 02:31 am

Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, who heads the National Movement for Social Justice and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) which were instrumental in the setting up of this Government yesterday stressed the need to put in place the promised electoral reforms before declaring a general election.

They insisted that the next general elections should be held under the new electoral system even if it was held after April this year.

“We don’t mind the government holding the elections after dissolving Parliament in April this year but it should be held under a new electoral system,” Ven. Sobitha Thera told a media briefing last afternoon.

He said no one wanted an election soon while it was the government which fixed the 100-day deadline on its own.

JHU President Venerable Athureliye Rathana Thera said the Government could not buy time by talking of delimitation because the election chief had assured that this process could be completed within 30 days and as such the Government should introduce electoral and constitutional reforms immediately and deliver on its promises.

JHU Leader the Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thera said the punishing of people who had been accused of corruption was moving a snail’s pace. He said it was disappointing to note that this Government had failed to penalize even one person who faced obvious corruption charges and pointed out that it was politics that was delaying this process.

The monks warned that this was the last chance the country would get to implement the necessary reforms and emphasised that the people would not tolerate any more delays. (YP and SD)


 

Video by Sanath Desmond