---

He told the Government’s final news briefing today that the government had identified ‘three foreign hands’ and certain foreign intelligence arms involved in helping the opposition candidate to win the elections. “They will be exposed and punished,” the minister said.


He said the Government had made a mistake during President Rajapaksa’s second term by failing to take action against those who had reportedly given money and weapons to the LTTE and helped it to kill the country’s political leaders.


The minister said the conspiracies against the Government had been discussed and hatched in Singapore by foreign and local agents and the government was in possession of video evidence to prove it.


“Opposition attempts to highlight a culture of violence in the run-up to the presidential election to convince voters that the Government has a hand in the attacks is a myth. We have statistics to show that this election is one of the most peaceful elections ever with only 314 complaints being received by police stations up to today. Most of them were minor incidents like the pulling down of banners and tearing of posters,” he said. (Sandun A Jayasekera)