I would do everything to protect January mandate: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who was criticised for allowing archrival Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest the August general elections, in an apparent damage-control exercise today said he would do everything to protect the January 8 mandate.

Speaking in the southern town of Matara, Sirisena without making a direct reference to Rajapaksa's return said, "I would not allow anyone to reverse the January revolution".

"I would do everything to protect the January 8 mandate, all my decision are based on that mandate," Sirisena said.

Susil Premajayantha, the general secretary of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced yesterday that Sirisena has agreed to let Rajapaksa contest the August 17 parliamentary election, six months after he vanquished the 69-year-old former strongman in the January presidential polls.

Earlier, Sirisena had been repeatedly resisting calls to allow the re-entry of Rajapaksa whom he accused of running a corrupt government.

The decision still to be officially confirmed by Sirisena has shocked many including his staunchest of supporters.

"What the President must remember is that the mandate he received in January was against all misdeeds of the Rajapaksa government," Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, a leading academic who was in the forefront of the Sirisena campaign.

"We are shocked by the decision," Sunil Handunneththi, a senior member of the JVP or the People's Liberaton Front, said.

Sirisena, who has handed the party leadership by Rajapaksa after is defeat, found that most in the Freedom Party and the UPFA were still loyal to Rajapaksa.

Unhappy with Rajapaksa being welcomed back, Sirisena's party treasurer and former Minister SB Nawinna said he would be joining the caretaker prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP tomorrow.