SLNN: If there is a presidential or parliamentary election, how confident is the UNP to face the elections?

Attanayake: It was the government that issued statements from time to time over the past three or four months. However, according to the Constitution, a parliamentary election has to be held before next April. We are therefore ready for both. The government thought that we would be scared of elections. That is not the case with us. We are ready for both elections.

SLNN: Several names are being discussed as the potential common candidate of the opposition, primarily that of Gen. Sarath Fonseka. Can you comment?

Attanayake: When the government announced that they would be holding presidential elections, they thought that they could go ahead with it unilaterally. It was with that idea that they spoke about a presidential election. Now the government itself is trying to find out who the presidential candidate would be. Now there are various names. When you say Sarath the government gets scared. When you say Sarath, there could be many Saraths. For this very reason the government today has got to a stage of attacking Sarath Fonseka.

There are various comments being made about the presidential candidate, and there are various reports being published in the media. We have now formed a coalition of thirteen political parties as the United National Front. At the same time there is a move to form another coalition of Tamil-speaking political parties. At the same the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna also has its own stand in this regard. All of us have one idea. It is that if we are to change the Rajapakse government, all political parties in the opposition should be of one mind. What we can see is that this unity of mind is one that has united a large number of people.

However, information about who the common candidate might be is something we do not wish to divulge at this time. The reason for that is because the government must first decide whether to declare a presidential election. Similarly, it is necessary that the elections commissioner should make an announcement in that regard. Without doing that, it is unfair to ask us as to declare who the candidate would be. We therefore say that elections should not be held on the basis of who the candidate is. What that shows is the bankruptcy of the government. Therefore, what we say is that if a presidential election is to be held, make an official announcement in that regard. We are ready to put forward our candidate.

What we can say in short is that if the government decides to conduct a presidential election, we are ready to inform the country about our candidate after it has been officially announced. The warning that we give to the government about the candidate is that we will present a candidate that will leave the government speechless.

SLNN: Even if you don’t want to name the candidate at this time, has the UNP reached a decision within the party about who it will support?

Attanayake: The United National Front has now reached an agreement. What is this agreement? It is that if all in the opposition agree to the candidate put forward by us, we are also ready to agree on a common candidate from the opposition based on the views of all in the opposition. The decision of who that candidate would be, would equally affect all parties before the country. Therefore, if one name is proposed by the United National Front, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the TNA and all others in the opposition, we are not ready to reject that name.

SLNN: But you don’t want to comment on whether that could be Gen. Fonseka?

Attanayake: I don’t think there is a need to mention names and the reason for that is that there is no presidential election. Where is the official Presidential election for us to say that?

Translated by Ranjit J. Perera

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