Mahinda Rajapaksa will be defeated again: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today said he never supported Mahinda Rajapaksa's nomination for the August elections and that his predecessor will lose again.

"Mahinda Rajapaksa who lost on January 8, will be defeated again. I will not make him the Prime Minister even if my party wins the election," Sirisena said in a televised address.

Sirisena, who came under fire for allowing Rajapaksa to contest election, was making his first public appearance since his controversial decision which angered most of his supporters. It even led to the formation of a new anti-Rajapaksa coalition.

"I was all along opposing Mahinda Rajapaksa's nomination. I flatly rejected the proposal to make him the prime minister," Sirisena said.

He said he was coming under increasing pressure from his Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP) and its broader United People's Freedom Alliance ( UPFA) coalition to allow Rajapaksa to contest election.

"I finally told them to do whatever they wished," he said, adding that he did not want to cause a division in the party by being too adamant.

Sirisena said he was forced to dissolve the parliament and order the August 17 poll to defeat a ploy by the pro- Rajapaksa camp to make him the Prime Minister.

The section of Sirisena's party who backed Rajapaksa had moved a motion of no confidence against his minority Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in order to make Rajapaksa the Prime Minister.

"They had plans to make one MP resign to make way for Rajapaksa to enter parliament after defeating Wickremesinghe in the no confidence motion," he said.

Sirisena said he was protecting the unity of the party as the political history of the island points to oppressive regimes whenever one of the two main parties suffered a split and weakened as a result.