General Secretary of the National People’s Power (NPP) Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe yesterday announced that his party would unveil its election manifesto concurrently with the submission of nominations for the presidential election scheduled for 21 Sept.
“The foundation of this manifesto is the one we presented for the 2019 presidential election. However, we are also making significant amendments. A lot of new facets needed our attention following the recent economic crisis. We have already presented our Science and Technology policy framework, Engineering Policy Concept Papers, etc. We will soon send a manifesto to each household and create a platform to discuss these policies,” he said.
Political parties try to woo politicians from other parties, believing that those who voted for them in previous elections would also crossover, based on wrong assumptions, Dr. Abeysinghe said.
He added that people voted for Maithripala Sirisena in 2015 and Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019 expecting a system change. A significant number of people, who voted for Sirisena, voted for Gotabaya in 2019, Dr. Abeysinghe said.
“So people have been yearning for a system change at least for a decade. The NPP is an organization which encompasses progressive forces of the nation. The JVP which forms the nucleus of it, is well known for fighting for the oppressed. People who voted for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP,) Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), etc., are now rallying behind the NPP.”
The NPP has not attempted to woo politicians who have been tainted by corruption. Compromising with such individuals would only harm the party. “We have spoken to the voters directly,” he said.
Dr. Abeysinghe added that millions of Sri Lankans are suffering due to the economic crisis, and that there are political parties who believe they can secure the votes of these voters by distributing goods. “Those who rallied behind the NPP, initially, are the socially aware educated sections of Sri Lanka. We reached out to professionals, we reached out to former military and law enforcement personnel, we reached out to women, etc. We have also established structures that will ensure we get inputs from these groups once we come into power.”
Dr. Abeysinghe said that they also work closely with estate sector communities. These communities do not have adequate knowledge of nutrition and they lack access to the most basic facilities.
“Under an NPP government, we will implement a programme that will uplift these people so that they can have the same human development indicators enjoyed by others,” he said. (RK)
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