Federalists in – JVP

By Chandani Kirinde

As the Rajapaksa government gets ready to welcome more than a dozen UNP MPs into its fold, the JVP yesterday accused President Rajapaksa of violating the agreement signed with it before the elections.

An angry JVP frontliner Anura Dissanayake said the party had worked hard to help Mr. Rajapaksa win the 2005 presidential election, but now he was blatantly violating many of the clauses in the 12 point pre-election agreement between the two parties.

Hammering out at the decision by President Rajapaksa and the Cabinet to accommodate UNP crossovers, Mr. Dissanayake said this also was a violation of the agreement and some of the UNP MPs likely to cross over had openly advocated federalism. He said some of the other UNPs tipped to crossover had bitterly criticized Mr. Rajapaksa and the Mahinda Chinthanaya. Thus it was clear that their only aim was power. Mr. Dissanayake said other key clauses in the agreement – the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement and the removal of Norway as a faciloitator– had also not been honoured by the President.