Ranil emulating his uncle J. R. Jayewardene – AKD

Postponement of elections

President Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to have taken a leaf out of his uncle. J. R. Jayewardene’s book on postponing elections, says JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.Addressing a seminar conducted by the JVP-led NPP at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo recently, Dissanayake, said: “People still remember how Wickremesinghe’s uncle Jayewardene put off elections. After the 1977 general election victory of the UNP, Jayewardene declared his intention to do away with elections. He wanted to make use of the five-sixth majority, he had in Parliament, to delay elections, until 1989. When the Supreme Court ruled that he could not do so, without the people’s approval, in a referendum, he asked the people whether an election should be held or not. The postponement of elections later resulted in a violent crisis. Now, Wickremesinghe is trying to postpone elections. He knows he cannot win another election. So, he is afraid of elections.