24 June 2020 12:00 am
By Yohan Perera
The new government, which will be formed in August 6, will fall within a short time together with the country’s economy, former MP Vajira Abeywardene said yesterday.
He told a news conference that this would be the fate of the new government no matter who forms it.
“Sri Lanka’s economy is also bound to collapse as nothing has been done to support it in the wake of global economic crisis resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic,” Mr. Abeywardene said. “The government is yet to pump in funds to the private sector as other countries have done.”
He said the government which was elected to office in 2000 fell in 2001 soon after the country’s economic growth reached a minus figure.
Mr. Abeywardene said media organisations should be given a grant because they had been updating the people on COVID-19 even in the absence of advertisements during the lock-down. When asked whether the United National Party (UNP) had given up the idea of winning the election that given the current economic situation any new government would collapse, he said the UNP would anyhow form a government.
Mr, Abeywardene said the efforts by party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to garner the support of all parties which supported former president Maithripala Sirisena in 2015 and field a common candidate had failed because some in the UNP held meetings at junctions demanding that then deputy leader Sajith Premadasa be made the prime ministerial candidate. Meanwhile, UNP Gampaha District candidate Danawardene Guruge said the UNP lost the opportunity of winning the presidential election in 2019 because Mr. Premadasa had rushed things. “We were to have nominated Karu Jayasuriya as our candidate for the presidential election last year. He had the support of all religious leaders. However we are suffering because of the quick decisions taken last year,” he said.