Confident that he will emerge victorious at the forthcoming Presidential Election, Mahinda Rajapaksa says that his third term as the President of Sri Lanka will commence after being sworn in on November 19, 2015.

The President made this declaration in response to a question during a meeting with news heads of print and electronic media at Temple Trees this morning.

Rajapaksa further stated that in reality he is contesting this Presidential Election against the Chandrika-Mangala alliance and not another candidate. He stated that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe is also in the side.

He claimed that Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena is not someone to be that concerned about and that UNP Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe would have posed a better challenge if he contested the election, as he possesses a strong voter base.

Rajapaksa charged that former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is supporting the Common Candidate in the election, had engaged in “hateful politics” in 2005 as well as in 2010, and that however, he will never engage in such hateful politics.

Asked about a recent statement made by him that he has “files” on MPs and Ministers who defected from the government, the President clarified that he only possess files which were given to him by ministers.

Rajapaksa said that ministers normally forward him files of their respective ministries and that when he spoke about this in public, various persons have given it various interpretations.