The National People’s Power (NPP) will not allow the government to implement the proposed Constitutional Amendments to introduce a new parliamentary electoral system before the Presidential polls, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
Speaking at a meeting with the Sri Lankan community in Toronto, Canada, he said the government was making every effort to evade a national election at this juncture as they are purturbed with the predictions that they are going to lose power.
“They are afraid of transfering power to the people.That is why there has been hesitation on elections.The government has now presented a Cabinet Paper to introduce a new electoral system. We will assure you that we will not allow any opportunity for the government to do it before the Presidential election,” he said.
Dissanayake said hnBasil Rajapaksa and his team were now harping to conduct the parliamentary elections before the Presidentail election as they are now certain that they cannot secure at least some parliamentray seats if the Presidential polls are held first.
He said however, according to the Constitution, the President has the discretion to dissolve Parliament at any moment and added that Parliament cannot be dissolved by passing a resolution in Parliament.
“The Presidential election has been held before the parliamentray election on three occassions in 2010, 2015 and 2019,” he said.
Responding to a question, he said the NPP was ready to form a government with individuals whom the NPP can agree and allign with in the event of the NPP failing to secure 113 seats.
“If we are able to secure some 105 seats, it means that the people are ready to accept our government. So, in that case, we will join with individuals whom we can agree and allign with. We will not allign with political forces but individuals,” he said.