President hints at breaking with UPFA at 65th SLFP Convention

By Dharisha Bastians

In the strongest hint yet that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party is poised to break with the UPFA, President Maithripala Sirisena told his party’s 65th Convention that they would contest the upcoming local government polls under the SLFP’s traditional ‘hand’ symbol.

“We are firing the first salvo towards forming a SLFP Government at this convention,” President Sirisena said in Kurunegala yesterday.

Hinting strongly at party rebels led by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, President Sirisena said all members of the party must unite to strengthen the SLFP instead of threatening to create new political parties.



Dressed in the traditional party colour, President Sirisena chaired the SLFP Convention in Maligapitiya Kurunegala yesterday that was held with much fanfare and drew large crowds. SLFP supporters converged upon Kurunegala from different parts of the island. Traditional drummers, dancers and musical interludes added colour to the proceedings. 

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who currently serves as a patron of the SLFP, attended the convention. Several SLFP alliance partners also joined President Sirisena and SLFP leaders on the dais. 

Notable absentees at the SLFP Convention were former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and members of the UPFA faction calling itself the ‘Joint Opposition’. Rajapaksa, who represents the Kurunegala District in Parliament, is currently in Malaysia attending a conference.

Since 2004, the SLFP has been the main constituent of the United People’s Freedom Alliance that traditionally contests elections under the symbol of the betel leaf. However the UPFA’s smaller constituent parties have been strongly critical of SLFP policies under President Sirisena’s leadership. This faction is led by the former President and includes a large grouping of SLFP members who routinely flout party directives.

“The SLFP will rise, it will fall, it will fall and it will rise again, but no matter how many times we fall, our 65 years of experience teaches us that the SLFP is the only party which rise again and again,” the President told an exuberant crowd.

He said SLFP leaders had faced challenges like no other party. “Our founder was brutally assassinated. The civic rights of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike were stripped. President Kumaratunga lost an eye in a terrorist attack, Mahinda Rajapaksa overcame terrorism and won the war,” the President enumerated during his convention speech.

President Sirisena’s speech at the convention took an emotional turn when he questioned why a faction of the party was challenging his leadership.

“Why are they challenging me? Why are they attacking me? Is it because I am an ordinary small man? Is it because I am the first President of Sri Lanka to have been born in a mudhut? Is it because I am the son of a poor farmer? Is it because I am not part of the traditional ruling class of this country?” he queried.

The President also vowed to fend off external threats, hitting out against his critics who claim that he was betraying the country to foreign forces. “I will not permit any external forces to interfere in our country,” he pledged.  

Also speaking at the Convention, SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake said the SLFP leadership had passed on to the most suitable and most deserving party members.

“65 years after the SLFP was founded, today the SLFP is a new party, a stronger party. That is why we say the party is in the right hands. Today S.W.R.D. Bandarnaike’s vision for this party is being realised,” Dissanayake asserted.

He said that the party convention had drawn record crowds this year, and urged those who said were allowing personal agendas to take precedence over the wellbeing of the party and its supporters to come and see what had happened in Kurunegala yesterday. 

“Kurunegala is today a sea of heads. We urge those who don’t know the strength of this party, those who don’t value this party, those who place their personal agendas before the party, to come and see for themselves what has happened today. This party is finally in the right hands,” the SLFP General Secretary said.