PC campaign enters final phase

by Wijitha NAKKAWITA

The provincial council elections campaign of the Central and North Western provinces is entering its final phase with two weeks still remaining but the major opposition party the UNP is expected to enter the fray only tomorrow.

The UPFA campaign however had gathered momentum with the President and senior ministers addressing the major rallies in the two provinces via satellite.

He said in the speech relayed via satellite to the UPFA rally in Chilaw on Thursday (29) that if the last Presidential election brought a different result the people of the Puttalam and Chilaw regions would have been forced to pay the LTTE ‘protection money’ Kappam, as the LTTE map came right up to that region.

Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha addressing the meeting said 3,000 UNP members would join the SLFP in the coming week and National Freedom Front parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa said the Tiger and the Elephant will be swept away from the province on February 14.

In a UNP propaganda rally in Kandy on Thursday one of its provincial council candidates Lafir Hajjiyar was reported saying that the UNP was the only party that had an economic management capability but the government could not manage the economy but was relying on the war to gain popularity.

The vociferous UNP backbencher Dayasiri Jayasekara MP said the UNP was prepared to support the armed forces in their humanitarian operations in the North but the UNP itself would carry out a humanitarian operation in the south as there was repression classifying the UNP as illegal immigrants.

He was addressing the UNP local activists at Chilaw.

However the UNP leadership will start the campaign from next Tuesday (2) but it could be interrupted on Independence Day taking one day less to campaign. The JVP however is on the campaign trail in the two provinces and their main slogan while reiterating their support for the armed forces was to say the UPFA government was moving towards an imperious rule.