President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has invited leaders of all political parties to come to a consensus on behalf of the people to overcome challenges.
In his message to mark May Day, he said the goal is to find solutions to crises by resorting to methods that can alleviate the suffering of the people.
The text of the message
“The International Workers’ Day comes at a time when the world’s working community is facing its greatest challenge.
“In the past three years, the group that faced the most serious challenges in our country is our working class. They are also the ones who were resilient in the face of all these challenges and made great commitments to strengthen the national economy. The day-to-day challenges accordance with the existing law, discouraging any attempt at a hurried election to settle the current impasse.
This was stated in a release issued by the Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake recently, in response to protests demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down and hold immediate elections.
The Commission said that the instability in the country must be immediately dealt with and essential services should be restored to put people’s lives back on track. In its set of proposals to ‘end political instability’ in the country, the Commission emphasised the need for all political parties to come together to appoint an interim Government. “Although we respect the individual identities of political parties and their right to have indigenous policies, we believe this a moment to unite to overcome the unprecedented economic crisis and rebuild the country.
“We believe that all political parties must come together in an interim Cabinet or a similar arrangement and the most important thing would be to implement a time-bound interim plan of action soon,” it added.