SEP and Plantation Workers Action Committee members campaigned at the Alton, Fairlawn, Glenugie, Strathspey and Gartmore estates in Maskeliya prior to Wickremesinghe’s cancelation of the local government polls.
About 60 people, including fishermen, farmers, daily wage workers, youth and housewives listened to SEP candidates outline the party’s socialist program.
The SEP is fielding candidates for three local government bodies the Kolonnawa Urban Council in Colombo, the Maskeliya Pradeshiya Sabha in Nuwara Eliya and the Karainagar Pradeshiya in Jaffna.
The government’s ongoing attempts to postpone the elections is a part of its broader attacks on the social and democratic rights of working people who are beginning to rise up against its brutal austerity measures.
Wickremesinghe justified already-imposed IMF demands, declared that there would be no reduction in the new pay-as-you-earn taxes, and outlined future attacks.