United National Party (UNP) Leadership Committee Chairman Karu Jayasuriya has said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot ‘legally’ compete for a third time for the presidency.

In a meeting held in Colombo the UNP Senior Parliamentarian has said that the UNP has done comprehensive ground research on the matter as to whether President Mahinda Rajapaksa can contest for a third time.

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“We agree with former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva’s statement that Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot legally contest in the upcoming presidential election. Sevaral international too affirmed our viewpoint on the matter”, Jayasuriya said.

Jayasuriya also added that the UNP would consider the election as an illegitimate election if the President contests for a third time.

Karu Jayasuriya maintained that the opening of a new Headquarters by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to tackle future election endeavours suggests that the government is prepared to deploy all the available assets for election campaigns.

“We clearly see that the government has already deployed the entire force of the government to promote themselves for the upcoming elections. From the opening of the new SLFP Headquarters we recognized that top-brass of leading government establishments have become puppets of the government”, he said.