(Lanka-e-News -11.March.2015, 11.45PM) HE the President Maithreepala Sirisena met the UNP-UK Branch officials at Park Lane Hilton on Sunday 8th March 2015. He was in London in a busy schedule to attend the commonwealth Day celebration on the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen.
The meeting was exclusively for the UNP UK Branch and it was arranged in appreciation of the work they carried out throughout the presidential campaign. Mr Harshaka Kannangara, president of UNP UK Branch welcomed the president and thanked for dedicating his valuable time for that cordial meeting. He further said it was the president who made a dream many Sri Lankans had a reality by coming forward fearlessly to fight against Mahinda Rajapakse. It was a major turning point for the country and now everyone is very hopeful of a better Sri Lanka. He also said that they never thought of having to support the General Secretary of SLFP but they did it without any hesitation as they knew that the common candidate was a person with utmost integrity. He also reminded the gathering of the sacrifice made by their party leader Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe to bring in a common candidate.
He also told the president that there were not many places and organisations who came forward to help his campaign in the UK. The UNPers in London pioneered a forum called “Maithree support in UK” with the help of other likeminded Sri Lankans and organised various events in London and also through social media to gather support for the election campaign.
He further mentioned that the party leader Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe was always informed of the activities in London. The members of the branch thanked the president for guiding Sri Lanka for victory and reiterated that the whole country trust him about the changes that he promised to bring in including 100 day programme.
The President in his speech thanked everyone for supporting his campaign and mentioned that he was aware of the activities of London based organisations during the campaign; He mentioned that both major political parties have never worked together in the past and this is a unique opportunity to work for a common goal. He mentioned that he was elected to the post of President with the help of UNP and other political parties and therefore he cannot consider himself as a president of one party even though he was appointed as chairman of SLFP after the elections. He said it was a huge challenge to come forward as common candidate as the ramifications of losing the election would have been worse to imagine.
He said that it’s very likely that the parliament will be dissolved in 2 months paving way for general elections. At the same time, he insisted that the constitutional reforms should be done to strengthen the stability of the elected government otherwise the parliament would not be stable with a thin majority. At present, the majority in parliament is dependant of the presidency.
The President also mentioned that the country had two opportunities in the past to work together, in 2004 at the tsunami and in 2009 after the end of the war. However both opportunities were not used. The time has again given us an opportunity to work together for the betterment of the country and we should not give up that opportunity. He said he is working very closely with the Prime Minister to bring in the necessary changes to the political culture.
Mr Harshaka Kannangara thanked the President for meeting them first during his busy schedule and also requested him to consider about relaxing the law of dual citizenship to help many Sri Lankans to come to the country and work for the country.
UNP UK Media Unit
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by (2015-03-12 00:05:28)
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