Former MP Hirunika Premachandra has said the 2029 presidential election will be won by a leader who speaks forcefully about people’s problems and can bring together both opposition supporters and voters who backed the present Government but have since withdrawn from politics.
Speaking to the media after appearing before the Court of Appeal on 23 September for the hearing of her appeal against a three-year prison sentence, Premachandra said she believed Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader Sajith Premadasa would become President because she supported him. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna supporters, she said, held a similar belief about Namal Rajapaksa.
“In 2029, it will be one of those two. I can say it will not be Anura Kumara Dissanayake,” she said.
Premachandra also addressed her appeal, saying that whoever became President in 2029, she would still have to face the legal process in her case. She then referred to herself in the third person, saying that “Hirunika will have to go to prison” to serve the three-year sentence imposed for her role in the abduction of a young man, regardless of who occupied the presidency.
The Colombo High Court sentenced Premachandra to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for aiding and abetting the 2015 abduction, unlawful detention and assault of an employee of a shop in Dematagoda. The employee was taken away in a black Defender vehicle.
Premachandra is currently on bail granted by the High Court. Her appeal against the conviction and sentence was taken up before the Court of Appeal on 23 September.
