Responding to a media query on recent moves by a section of Indian politicians and the media to destabilize Sri Lanka, the President said he had made a note of the issues and they will be thrashed out at regular meetings between the Sri Lankan government and Indian leaders.

“The dialogue will go on and I will not allow any country to de-stabilize the motherland as long as I am here,” declared the President.

Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris too emphasised that whatever issues that were raised would be taken up during his meetings with New Delhi.

Commenting on the criticism on the decision to hold a slew of elections in the coming weeks and months the President said his democratic moves must have disappointed those who attempted to stage a ‘Arab Spring’ like uprising here.

“In other countries opposition demands that elections are held on time but here we have an opposition that claim we have too many elections,” he retorted. Lashing out at parties which are boycotting the Parliamentary Select Committee to resolve the North and East issue, the President referred to it as a ‘dereliction of nation duty by selfish boycotters’.

On the Northern Provincial Council polls to be held in September next year, the President said it was mandatory to correct the demographic mismatches that are there currently taking place when compared with the figures of the 1981 census.

“We may not be able to replicate the exact ratio but we need to bring it to a satisfactory level” the President added.

Meanwhile Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa pointed out that the fixing of election date in September next year was necessitated by the fact that the next amended electoral list would be out only in June next year. Minister Rajapaksa said the LLRC too had recommended the resettlement of Sinhala and Muslim IDPs in their places of origin while attending to the needs of Tamil IDPs. He said there were gross discrepancies in Sinhala population in many areas in the North including VavuniyaSouth.

Commenting on the possibility of a crossover by UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara who met him a few days ago, the President quipped, ‘The door to our government is similar to that of a salon door. If you come from the opposite direction you can enter without a problem and if one wants to get out that too is equally possible,”

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka