21 October 2023 12:00 am Views - 2645
Ahead of his planned visit to the United States, National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake met U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung and brought her attention to what he termed planned moves by the government to postpone the Presidential elections.
U.S. Embassy’s political officer Matthew Hinson and its political expert Marikkar Fathima also attended the meeting.
NPP members Vijitha Herath and Comrade Muditha Nanayakkara were also present.
Mr. Dissanayake, on a message posted on his X formerly known as Twitter said, “We brought to the attention of the Ambassador of the United States the need for urgent mediation by the United Nations to prevent the ongoing humanitarian disaster due to the continuing war between Israel and Palestine.
We pointed out that the economic difficulties that the people of Sri Lanka are currently suffering have intensified due to the intervention of the I.M.F. The Ambassador said the United States has provided humanitarian aid of $278M to Sri Lanka within a year.
We also pointed out the government’s attempt to suppress the democratic rights of the people. We drew the attention of the Ambassador about the postponement of the local government election, the non-holding of the provincial council election and the attempt to withhold the upcoming presidential election.”