Ranil addresses rallies in Trinco, Kinniya

Ranil Wickremasinghe, presidential candidate of the UNP addressed two election rallies organized by the LSMC in support of his presidential bid yesterday, one in Trincomalee town and the other in Kinniya. SLMC leader Rauff Hakim also addressed these meetings along with Mr. Wickremasinghe.
Wickremasinghe arrived in Trincomalee by an Air Force helicopter around 12 noon and was driven to the venue by a motorcade to Trincomalee private bus stand where the meeting was held.
He said that if he was elected to power he would invite the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to participate in the peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He would take steps to involve all parties concerned in the national problem. ‘A lasting political solution to the ethnic question should be found under a federal concept within a united Sri Lanka', he added.
SLMC leader Rauff Hakim, said the SLMC has come to an understanding with the UNP on several important issues with regard to the political aspirations of the Muslim community. One of the SLMC demands is to confer autonomous powers to Muslim areas in the North-East similar to granting such powers and political status to Tamil majority areas. UNP has agreed to this and also to include a separate delegation of Muslim representatives in the future peace talks with the LTTE, he said.
Prime Minister and presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse has joined with the JVP and the JHU, two Sinhala nationalist forces that are opposing to any devolution of power as a solution to the ethnic crisis. The SLMC decided not to support Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse because he had alienated the minority communities in Sri Lanka, Hakim said.