Colombo: Seeking to keep the opposition on tenterhooks on the Presidential Elections, Sri Lankan government has said President Mahinda Rajapaksa has two more years to complete his first term in office but is ready to face election confidently any time.
Minister of Mass Media and Information Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said that the most trusted and strongest force in the country is the alliance headed by the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) under the leadership of Rajapaksa.
"The President has two more years to complete his first term in office but the President and his government is ready to face any type of election confidently at any given time," he said yesterday.
Yapa said the President's decision regarding a Presidential or Parliamentary Election would be known shortly.
He said the time had come for the "dissolution" of the Opposition United National Party (UNP) which, he alleged, "has become totally politically bankrupt”.
Members of lower ranks of UNP had no other alternative than joining the President, Yapa claimed. "The UNP is unable even to find a candidate for the Presidential election."
The Minister also said that a strong political leadership was paramount to guide the military to win a war.
Yapa said Rajapaksa was confronted with numerous political influences during the war against the LTTE, but the President "was not afraid of any of these forces."
Meanwhile, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed a 25-year policy plan that includes elections for an executive prime minister in Sri Lanka.
Under his proposal, the President would have responsibility to safeguard the Constitution and the political system.
Besides, proposing the setting up of a State Assembly to formulate national policies, Wickremasinghe suggested holding of general election as also polls for executive prime minister and provincial and local government polls on a single day.
Separately, 'The Island' newspaper in an opinion piece said that the defeat of the LTTE could not have been possible without the "strategic" partnership between Rajapaksa and former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Sarath Fonseka.
"Retired CDS General Sarath Fonseka, like President Mahinda Rajapakse, is a colossus of our times," it said.
"The President's political astuteness found an ally in the army commander's military acumen: either would not have been such a brilliantly effective leader in the absence of the other in that situation," the paper said.
Since different parameters of excellence apply in the two domains, military and political, no comparison between the two is possible or necessary, it said. "In terms of efficient performance both excelled themselves."
However, in the final analysis, the political leadership eclipses the military. "If everything aborted, Sarath Fonseka would have quietly taken a back seat with little blame, but Mahinda Rajapakse would have had to face the music," it said.
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 15:16