President rates Bati elections as biggest win

President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the Batticaloa elections the biggest political victory of Sri Lankans after they attained universal franchise. He made this statement at the swearing in ceremony of Batticaloa Local Government representatives held the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.

“The Batticaloa election was a major milestone in Sri Lankan democracy. In my opinion it is second only to the universal franchise. There was a loss of democracy in some parts of the country because of terrorism. People in the east have been living in terror for decades and were not able to exercise their franchise. But with this election democracy is reinstated in the east. This is a people’s victory and no one should underestimate it,” he said.

The President added that LTTE leader Prabhakaran is the biggest enemy of the Tamil people who has denied the people of the north and the east the freedom enjoyed by Sri Lankans who live in other parts of the country.

“The people in the east have been deprived of the basic rights enjoyed by the others in Sri Lanka but now you are free. You can enjoy democracy.

You no longer have to live under the rule of guns,” he said. He added that in the near future people in the north will also be liberated. “People in the north will also be under democratic rule in the near future,’ he said.

Meanwhile Batticaloa Mayor Ms. Sivageetha Prabakaran said that the TMVP will work with the people to develop the east that has been plagued by decades of civil war. “We will rebuild the east and it will be a free place where peace prevails,” she said.

President Mahinda Rajapakse gave eight Local Councils and the Batticaloa Municipal Council Rs. 2.5 million to start development projects in the district. Rajapaksa also gave Rs.100,000 each to Local Government members to purchase motor cycles.