Coalition Government Will Continue -PM

While speaking to journalists at Temple Trees last afternoon,Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said the coalition government will continue to take forward the January 8, 2015 mandate with several political,fiscal and party reforms to follow, while accepting the peoples’ verdict during last week’s Local Government (LG) elections.

In his first appearance following the LG polls, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the coalition government will work according to the provisions of the constitution and he will continue to carry out duties as the Prime Minister. “We have time to correct our situation and plan to restructure the entire development programme of the government with an impending cabinet reshuffle,” he said.

He said the mid-term LG polls were a good barometer for the government to check the pulse of the people. “It is a warning conveyed by voters and we would initiate reforms accordingly.”

He said he had a round of discussions with President Maithripala Sirisena after the election and will have another discussion next week. “Working within a coalition government is a difficult task; however, we will work according to the Constitution.”

Talking about the future of his party, the Prime Minister said his party – UNP – will go through some major changes with an emerging young group of MPs being groomed to take the leadership of the party over the next 20 years.

“The leadership should play a major role and those who aspire to be leaders should be able to work in unison. The UNP is the only political party that remains as the ‘single strong’ party within the political system in the country.”

Further he added, the 2018 LG polls was an experiment.

“As a result, there are lot of hung councils. We are currently analysing the shortcomings so that we can take corrective measures and improve the system in future elections.”