By Ajith Sir­i­war­da­na and San­ath Des­mond
Uni­ted Na­tion­al Par­ty (UNP) par­lia­men­tar­i­an Aki­la Vir­aj Kar­iya­wa­sa­m told a news con­fer­ence at par­ty head­quar­ters Sir­i­ko­tha yes­ter­day that UNP Na­tion­al Lead­er Ra­nil Wick­re­me­singhe would be the par­ty’s pres­i­den­tial can­di­date.

“The UNP will not field any oth­er can­di­date but will have its pres­ent lead­er as the pres­i­den­tial candidate be­cause what peo­ple want is a lead­er who is not cor­rupt, who can de­vel­op the econ­o­my and who is not in­ter­es­ted in earn­ing com­mis­sions,” Mr. Kariyawasam said
He said some se­nior min­is­ters had lost their elec­tor­ates at the Uva Pro­vin­cial Coun­cil elec­tions be­cause the gov­ern­ment had not al­lo­cated funds to Cab­i­net Min­is­ters except through the Ra­ja­pak­sas.

“It is not sur­pris­ing that Min­is­ter Ni­mal Sir­i­pa­la De Sil­va lost his elec­tor­ate be­cause the Gov­ern­ment had not pro­vi­ded him any funds for de­vel­op­ment proj­ects. Funds are al­lo­ca­ted on­ly through the Ra­ja­pak­sas. The Gov­ern­ment wan­ted to de­feat some se­nior min­is­ters and it on­ly wants to win MPs who are par­ti­al to the Ra­ja­pak­sas,” Mr. Kariyawasam said.

He said peo­ple had de­ci­ded to end the Ra­ja­pak­sa re­gime be­cause they had tak­en a se­ri­ous de­ci­sion against the Ra­ja­pak­sas.
“Even the Pres­i­dent was en­gag­ed in the door-to-door elec­tion cam­paign in Uva. Peo­ple have re­al­iz­ed that the Gov­ern­ment can­not win elec­tions by talk­ing about the war vic­to­ry. Peo­ple want the econ­o­my de­vel­oped and the bra­zen and bla­tant cor­rup­tion stop­ped,” he said.

Mr. Kar­iya­wa­sam said the UNP was go­ing to take the peo­ple to the streets against this re­gime and the peo­ple have shown that they were ready to do so.