The other three candidates come with serious, troubled pasts, I do not-Namal

• If I, or my father is guilty of anything then we wouldn’t be facing the people in an election

By JAMILA HUSAIN  

SLPP’s Presidential Candidate, Namal Rajapaksa said that the other three leading candidates - Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake came with serious, troubled pasts, but he was the only candidate who did not have any such allegations.

In his maiden interview with Daily Mirror after declaring his candidacy, Namal also said that although his uncle Gotabaya Rajapaksa was very recently removed from Office following a severe crisis in the country, he believed that there was a planned conspiracy against him, similar to what happened in Bangladesh and if he himself had done anything wrong, he would not be contesting for Presidency. “I’m not afraid because we haven’t done anything wrong. If we have done anything wrong, I wouldn’t be contesting. If I, or my father is guilty of anything then we wouldn’t be facing the people in an election,” Namal said in his maiden interview after declaring his candidacy to contest for the Presidency on September 21.  Namal further said that he was a new generation of Rajapaksa, and offered a modern and fresh thinking to uplift the nation.  

“My thinking is modern. If we are to move to a modern Sri Lanka we should have modern thinking. My focus is to develop infrastructure, and rural economy, make Sri Lanka a global hub for services, and tourism. I’m looking at it with a very positive approach. I’m not going to say that I will catch all the thieves and find money to run the economy. I’m not going to say just because I increase the prices and reduce consumption, I can control the queues. I’m saying I will bring progressive changes to the administrative structure, to digitalisation,” Namal said.