NPC polls: SLMC to go it alone

NPC polls: SLMC to go it alone

By Cyril Wimalasurendre-June 30, 2013

KANDY – Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) will contest the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election on its own.

SLMC Leader and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem said in Kandy yesterday (30) that his party intended to go it alone at the NCP polls scheduled for September.

Minister Hakeem was responding to a question by the media, while addressing a meeting of the SLMC political activists in Kandy at the party branch office at Katugastota Road.

Minister Hakeem said that there was no need to be excited about the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the national question as several political groups including the TNA, the UNP and the JVP had already announced that they would not participate in it.

In the address to the SLMC gathering, Hakeem said that during the on-going debate over the 13th Amendment, sinister attempts were being made by some groups and individuals to pull the SLMC out of the government.

But, the SLMC was not prepared to destablise the government, the SLMC leader said."Whatever the critics of the 13th Amendment may say I strongly believe that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, with his experience of 40 years, will make a reasonable decision on the matter, Hakeem said, adding that the SLMC made independent decisions and acted accordingly.