SLFP CC to decide fate of MR

• Decision expected after Local Government polls
• First SLFP rally on 10 January in Anuradhapura

By Skandha Gunasekara

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday said the party would take action against former president Mahinda Rajapaksa for actively supporting another political party at the upcoming Local Government elections. 

“The SLFP Central Committee will discuss the matter and decide soon after the LG polls in February,” SLFP Minister S.B. Dissanayake said yesterday. 

The Minister made these remarks while addressing a media briefing held at the SLFP headquarters last afternoon. 

While asserting that the decision by the former President to campaign for another party had no effect on the SLFP in any way, Minister Dissanayake remarked that the move had come as a surprise to the party.

“When the Rajapaksas are as eligible to the SLFP as the Bandaranaikes, why would the former President leave the party? Despite their claims of having poached senior SLFPers to the SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna), the only senior among them is Kumara Welgama and we all know how long he has been in politics,” Minister Dissanayake said. 

Former President Rajapaksa in a statement yesterday said that he would support the SLPP at the Local Government polls. He also wrote to the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, to inform him that only the SLPP could use his pictures for campaigning. 

With regard to the UPFA campaign for the forthcoming Local Government elections, Minister Dissanayake said their first rally would take place on 10 January in Anuradhapura. 

SLFP General Secretary Minister Duminda Dissanayake is to organise the rally while President Maithripala Sirisena is expected to head the event. The rally will mark the inception of the island-wide SLFP election campaign, with a series of public rallies scheduled to be attended by the President.

The second rally will be held in Colombo on 11 January.