He was speaking at the maiden election rally of the UPFA at Salgado Stadium in Anuradhapura yesterday afternoon (17).

Rajapaksa claimed he did not give into foreign forces and had not betrayed the country, and advised those who called him a traitor to go before the mirror early in the morning to see the actual traitor.

Here, he made 12 main points:

1.He lost power as he did not bow before foreign forces.
2.The CWE has been ruined and ‘mega dealers’ are in the UNP list.
3.He did not give liquor or casino licenses, and the UNP gave 300 liquor licenses.
4.The country is full of drugs and even schoolchildren are exposed to drugs.
5.It took only 100 days for the new regime to reverse the development of the country that he had saved from terrorism within four years.
6.Paddy, rubber, milk farmers and tea estate owners are rendered helpless.
7.The north is having a situation similar to the 1980s when the LTTE terrorism was raising its head.
8.The new regime attacked university students and imprisoned them.
9.A female leader of the SLFP has voted for Ranil Wickremesinghe.
10. Two or three more highways could have been built with the money lost to the state due to the bond fraud.
11. Foreign embassies aided the forces that had demanded that he be not given nominations.
12. Prices of pharmaceuticals have not been reduced even though the pharmaceuticals act has been adopted.

In a speech last Tuesday, president Maithripala Sirisena strongly criticized his predecessor, but Rajapaksa made no mention about him during yesterday’s speech, BBC Sandeshaya reports.