Executive presidency enabled victory over LTTE: Rajapaksa

As continuation of Executive Presidency becomes a major issue in the upcoming presidential elections, the Sri Lankan head of state Mahinda Rajapaksa has strongly defended it.

As continuation of Executive Presidency becomes a major issue in the upcoming presidential elections, the Sri Lankan head of state Mahinda Rajapaksa has strongly defended it, saying it was only its provisions that had helped him to wipe out Tamil Tiger insurgency.

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Claiming that sweeping powers bestowed on him by the such law were "not misused", Rajapaksa said the Executive Presidential powers had been used to cancel the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE and proscribe the organisation.

This is the first comment by the head of state who is running for re-election in the January 26 polls on the issue and comes in the wake of demands raised by all opposition parties as well as some sections of his own party calling for abolition of the Executive Presidency and re-establishing parliamentary form of government on the island.

Addressing a poll gathering, Rajapaksa said his government was committed to safeguard democracy and ensure the right to the people of the North and East to elect their own provincial government. He said, popular will had been restored in these areas which were earlier in the clutches of the LTTE.

"Executive powers were not misused," Rajapaksa said while expressing confidence that everyone will join hands to build the country with a very high standard of living.

Meanwhile, Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Rishad Bathiyudeen claimed that 90 per cent of Muslims would vote for President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming Presidential Elections.