UPFA will receive more than 80% votes - Shan Wijaya Lal de Silva

by L. S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

More than eighty percent of the voters will vote UPFA at the forthcoming Southern Provincial Council election, predicted Shan Wijaya Lal de Silva ex-chief Minister SPC and the Galle district UPFA group leader.

Sri Lankans have a great respect and affection towards President Mahinda Rajapaksa who bravely liberated Sri Lanka from LTTE terrorism. We know the pulse of the people since we live with the people in the Southern Province. The President was elected by Southerners by giving the biggest majority. The UPFA Government under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa fullfilled the promises given at the Presidential Election. So, the Southern people will show their gratitude by voting in the UPFA with a big majority at the next SPC election, he said.

Shan Wijaya Lal de Silva joined the SLFP students movements as a schoolboy. In 1993 he contested the Southern Provincial Council elections on the UPFA ticket-having resigned from the government service where he worked as a Customs Superintendent. He served 16 years continuously as a provincial Council member. He was the Chief Minister SPC for the last five years and before that the chairman of the Provincial Council.

Referring to the services rendered to the Southern Province, he said that the SPC rebuilt the Southern Province which was destroyed by the 2004 Tsunami. None of the Provincial Councils faced such a huge devastation in Sri Lanka, he said.

“We completed the post Tsunami restoration work in the Southern Province in one year.

We were able to enjoy a majority in the Southern Provincial Council only for one year because the JVP left the alliance after that period. But even without the majority I must say that we have rendered a tremendous volume of work.

Some of the noteworthy development drives including infrastructure, education and fisheries sectors were completed, he said.

What is still noteworthy is that we were able to successfully overcome the setback due to the JVP’s exit by prevailing over the political as well as development challenges that we faced, he said.

He said that the UNP and the JVP are bankrupt.

The general public has lost faith in them. Their claim that there has been no development is a reflection of their bankruptcy. These two parties will not even poll 20 percent at the forthcoming election which will reveal the dire straits the UNP and JVP are in, he said.