The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) said that they are committed stakeholders of Sri Lanka’s democracy and not striving to promote deposed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as an individual.

“We do not have any personal passion for the individual, Ranil Wickremesinghe. There is no ‘relationships’ between ACMC and the UNP either. We stand with UNP chiefly to safeguard democracy and to uphold our constitution that has been violated repeatedly-and we join UNP’s call against this violation,” he said on Thursday. 

He said that certain media have been incorrectly reporting that the ACMC is colluding with the UNP due to their call to re-appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister. “We call Wickremesinghe’s return as PM neither because of any personal passion for the individual nor due to any ’relationship’ between ACMC and the UNP, but because his removal is a clear violation of the constitution.” 

He stressed that all Sri Lankans are bound to act according to the Constitution and that no one can violate it. “The removal of Wickremesinghe from the premiership is a clear violation of the Constitution and this is where we say it is wrong. President’s sacking of the previous Cabinet too was illegal.” 

“Also the President said that even if all 225 MPs say they want the Wickremesinghe back as PM, he would not allow it-which statement too was in violation of the constitution. We oppose all these anti-constitutional acts and statements by President of the country,” added Bathiudeen.

The ACMC Leader was addressing the press immediately after returning from the Police HQ having given his statement to CID on the alleged plot to assassinate him. 

A taped conversation between Director of ‘Dushana Virodhi Balakaya’ Namal Kumara, and a resident in France Thushara Peiris, that was aired many media Channels mentioned about the attempted assassination of Rishad Bathiudeen during a ceremony in Batticaloa. 

As a result ACMC MPs lodged a complaint with Colombo Police HQ on October 23 on the alleged plot against their leader. Bathiudeen was thereafter summoned by the CID on December 6 to give his own statement to CID on these developments.

“We are against illegal appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. President Maithripala Sirisena has used a power he does not have as President, in making this appointment. It’s a severe violation of the Constitution. We will never support this constitutional violation-or any other violations.

“The violation could be by the President, Prime Minister or even anyone else –we oppose violation of Sri Lanka’s constitution by anyone-which is anti-democratic,” the ACMC Leader added.