"I know the right time to come forward and to step down" - Sajith Premadasa

COLOMBO (News 1st):- The Kolonnawa electorate organizer S.M Marikkar had organized a special electoral council meeting in support of UNP's presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa with the participation of several ministers and parliamentarians. Addressing the people gathered, UNP MP S. M. Marikkar says;

"I would like to express my appreciation to Sajith Premadasa for holding the first public rally after being nominated here in Kolonnawa. I would also like to say this when Sajith is here. We have not played double games in the run-up to making Sajith Premadasa the Presidential candidate. We stood straight.They said that we will be removed from our positions. We were not afraid. We did that on behalf of the people of Kolonnawa."

Speaking to the people gathered, Deputy Leader of the UNP Sajith Premadasa;

"After the Presidential election victory, we hope to carry out a governance system aimed at national goals. There are 5-year plans as well as 10-year plans. There are annual objectives in these short term and long term plans. There are monthly plans and weekly objectives. There will be discipline in achieving these objectives. It will be an effective governance system. It will be strong governance. We will carry out a new program, we will have a new vision. We must create a social democracy where the resources will be distributed equally. We have been discussing the economic growth rate for many years. We have been speaking about national income. We have been speaking about Per Capita Income. But when you observe closely, there are disparities in wealth and resource distribution. They say that the Per Capita Income reached 4000 dollars. They created a myth. It is easy to rule a country based on an artificial sense of happiness. We must look at the situation at the ground level. You can be speaking to people about the GDP but you must look at the happiness index of the people. We cannot see that they are happy. We must create a ladder for the general populace to go up from their current situation. Remember, Sajith Premadasa does not carry out political deception. The only politics Sajith Premadasa is carrying out is to develop the motherland."

Meanwhile, the United National Party's special Bala Mandala meeting was also held at Elpitiya today (September 29). Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa and several ministers and MPs participated in the meeting organized by Elpitiya organizer Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka. Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms, Gayantha Karunatileka;

"We have now put forward the candidate that the people were waiting for despite party differences. Any person can approach this leader and embrace him with affection. He is the candidate that anyone can accept as a brother. He is the candidate that suits anyone in this country be it a person from the village, the city, a person who knows the heart of the poor man. He is a candidate who can easily win if he contested from Colombo, but he went to the poor people in the region of the Rajapaksa's, to Hambantota. We have now got him as our presidential candidate." UNP's Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa; "I make a humble request, give Sajith Premadasa this opportunity. I will not cling on to these positions. When Sajith Premadasa's term ends, that will be the end. I am not a man who will hand over this country to the Premadasa Family or the Premadasa regime like that. I knew the right time to come forward, and I know the right time to step down. I have no fear of taking up positions but when the time comes to leave I will leave with my head held high."