Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP and Presidential candidate Namal Rajapaksa emphasised the party’s unwavering commitment to its core principles and the preservation of a unitary state.
Rajapaksa vowed that the SLPP would never concede police or land powers to Provincial Councils. “As long as we are in politics, we will never compromise on these issues,” he said.
He was speaking at his inaugural campaign rally in Anuradhapura on Wednesday, August 21.
Rajapaksa said that they would not deceive people during the election campaign. He pledged to protect Tamil culture and language, and added that there would be no amalgamation of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces.
“The children of rural families fought and sacrificed their lives to protect the country’s unitary state,” he said, recalling Anuradhapura’s history as a “border village” saying that such divisions no longer exist. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa erased these ‘border villages’ from the map and from our vocabulary.”
He said the SLPP is an “indefatigable force” driven by policies and committed to implement broad-based programs to strengthen the economy of the people.
He promised to continue and modernise Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Agriculture Development Policy, which was in place from 2005 to 2015, by introducing new technologies.
“We must grow whatever can be grown on our soil. This should not be a time when we import food. We will provide support and resources for local farmers, including fertiliser subsidies for paddy farmers, chena cultivators, and tea smallholders,” he said.
