<span style="color: #222222;">Sri Lanka's former Army Commander General Mahesh Senanayake today joined the Presidential race after being named candidate of the National People's Movement (NPM). The NPM is a collective of civil organizations and was created last year in order to promote national unity, achieve religious and ethnic harmony and reconciliation, develop a new political leadership and identify the most suitable individuals to lead the country. It announced its candidate during a special summit held today at Colombo. The movement said, they decided upon the candidate to fulfill all Sri Lankans hopes with all the criteria that the presidential candidate must possess.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion, General Senanayake said that contesting at the Presidential election was a collective decision and it was not a personal decision. He became the 22nd Commander of the Army in June 2017 and retired last month from nearly 38 years of service in Sri Lanka Army.</span><br />