Fonseka’s seat belongs to him and none other: JVP

Sarath Fonseka’s parliamentary seat belongs to him alone and to none other. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is doing all it could to protect this seat for him, said JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva.

The JVP does not accept that Democratic National Alliance leader Sarath Fonseka has lost his seat in Parliament due to his imprisonment. The JVP, through Mr. Fonseka’s lawyers are to submit two petitions on Monday (Oct. 11) regarding the matter, said Tilvin Silva.

“One petition will be for a writ order from courts against the move to appoint another person to replace Sarath Fonseka and the other will be a Fundamental Rights application in the Supreme Courts to safeguard Mr. Fonseka’s rights,” he added.

The government was in a hurry to proceed with dislodging Mr. Fonseka and replacing him by some other even as a controversial debate is going on whether the Court Martial verdict is binding on an elected MP rather than a civil court verdict.

Though Sarath Fonseka’s lawyers have expressed their opinions to the courts regarding this matter, the government has disregarded these. “If a lawyer or firm of lawyers raises objections to a legal issue, the process should be temporarily stopped to consider these objections. But this is not happening now. The government is in a hurry to get rid of Fonseka,” said the JVP General Secretary.

Lashing out at the media, Tilvin Silva said that knowingly or unknowingly, a section of the media had tried to twist the story of a JVP member taking the place of Sarath Fonseka. He said that these media had reported that the JVP was attempting to grab Fonseka’s parliamentary seat. “Once a member loses his/her seat in Parliament, the Secretary General of Parliament informs the Elections Commissioner about the vacancy. The Elections Commissioner in turn names the next in line on the list of preference votes in the particular district and informs the party General Secretary. That person is then nominated to fill the vacancy.

In this issue, when the Elections Commissioner informed the DNA, Lakshman Nipunaarachchi was the next in line. “The JVP never nominated him to replace Fonseka. So, these media reports were either due to ignorance or a planned move to mislead the masses into believing that the JVP was about to grab Sarath Fonsela’s seat by appointing a member of its own,” Tilvin Silva added.

He also said that anyone writing to the President regarding Fonseka’s release due to their closeness to President Mahinda Rajapaksa -- apparently referring to the letter from United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe – would not help in the process.

Sarath Fonseka or his family will never beg for a pardon from the President as Fonseka has not done any wrong. It should be the other way round. The President should tender an apology to the masses for the wrongs he had committed where Mr. Fonseka is concerned, said Tilvin Silva.

He said that only people’s power could save Sarath Fonseka and that they were mobilizing this support and would hold islandwide protests.