The Hon. D.V. Chanaka

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, I have a brief question to the Hon. Deputy Minister Watagala. When Ranil Wickremesinghe postponed the poll, the Treasury Secretary said there were no funds. The same Secretary has now presented the Budget and even told Hon. Anura Kumara Dissanayake that those who said such things then should be jailed. That very Secretary is still at the Treasury. It was that decision — to postpone the first election in twenty years to local bodies, despite a Supreme Court judgment — that was supported by six JVP MPs as well; I was in Parliament then. We opposed; you did not.

¶ 02 Further, today candidates cannot even put up a banner within their local areas, yet a person named Tiron Silavansa has been appointed, improperly, as Secretary to the Kalawana Pradeshiya Sabha while he is a candidate at this very local poll. Under the law, neither the Provincial Commissioner nor the Minister has power to appoint a current candidate as a Pradeshiya Sabha Secretary. We know this one instance; how many more such appointments have been made? You have time today to answer and correct these illegal appointments of your candidates.