Urban Council for Sainthamaruthu : Mahinda Rajapaksa

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Certain statements made on the political stage are being discussed widely today. One of the key statements was to grant an Urban Council to Sainthamaruthu. Independent Presidential Candidate M.L.A.M. Hizbullah has mentioned this on his election manifesto named "Our Dreams" yesterday (October 28). Under the topic administrative unit, the independent candidate has stated that an urban council will be established in the Sainthamaruthu area. M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, Independent Presidential Candidate: "If we obtain 250,000 votes, the candidate that we support will be the president of this country. Let's call the 2 main candidates of the presidential election as A & B. Lets assume Candidate A obtains 6 million votes in the first stage while candidate B obtains 6.2 million votes. It will mean that none of the candidates has obtained 50% of votes. So nobody can be the president in the first stage. The second voting starts. For example, if we are supporting candidate B, we will give him our 250,000 votes. Candidate B will then be the president of this country. Let's say we support the candidate A who got the 6 million votes. He will then win with an excess of 50,000 votes. So nobody can be the president without our support." It was against this backdrop that Leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Mahinda Rajapaksa made a promise to establish an Urban Council in Sainthamaruthu at the Fowzy grounds recently. Mahinda Rajapaksa noted that there were 4 local government bodies and 4 local governments were made one. He added that while establishing 4 local government bodies they would establish an urban council for Sainthamaruthu. UNP MP Mujibur Rahuman: "It is on Gotabaya Rajapaksa's stage that all extremists stand. In 1990, Vardaraja Perumal declared this as a separate state. Who is he with? He is with Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Karuna Amman is with Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Pillayan is with Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Hizbullah is also with Gotabaya Rajapaksa. All extremists are with Gotabaya Rajapaksa." Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Minister of Public Administration, Disaster Management and Livestock Development noted that Hizbullah was a minister during Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure and he was the person who established Shariya university using the funds from Saudi Arabia. He added that after all that he is contesting as an independent candidate for Mahinda Rajapaksa. MP  Udaya Gammanpila noted that all issues before presidential candidates are common and people of this country have presented the same issues to all presidential candidates. He added that it doesn't mean that the candidates have a direct or an indirect link with each other.