• SLFP to discuss vote with President 
• If UNP against death penalty, should have abolished it: Dayasiri
• SLFP reiterates distrust of SOFA and ACSA agreements with US 

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) will hold a Central Committee meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena to decide how they will vote at the upcoming No Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Government, General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera said yesterday. 

SLFP General Secretary  Dayasiri Jayasekera

Jayasekera, speaking to media at the Party headquarters, said the SLFP was engaged in anti-Government efforts, and was leaning towards supporting the No-Confidence Motion submitted by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) that will be taken up for debate in parliament next week. However, he acknowledged a final decision will be made after discussions with President Sirisena. 

“There is no point in saying what we will do unless we can get the votes. In total, we should be able to gather 95 votes, including those supporting Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, but this must be well-planned. We are clearly engaged in a movement against the Government, and this vote will be another demonstration of that. I do not see us taking any other path,” he said. 

Jayasekera also defended President Maithripala Sirisena’s push to enact the death penalty, insisting that it was for the benefit of future generations and to quell the increasing drug menace. Referring to statements made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that the United National Party (UNP) was against the implementation of the death penalty, Jayasekera questioned as to why the UNP did not take steps to abolish the death penalty over the last forty years, when their party was in power. 

“There has been a moratorium on the death penalty for over forty years, so why did the UNP not abolish it when they were in power? They had multiple opportunities but nothing was done, so there is no point in now saying their party is against the death penalty. This is misleading and does not reflect the true situation. The President is only attempting to deliver a serious message to drug smugglers who are very powerful people. This is an isolated effort limited to these four people, the President has not said that he will continue to carry out the death penalty continuously,” he added. 

Jayasekera also criticized what he termed as efforts by the UNP to sign security cooperation agreements with the US, which could undermine Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), in his view, has questionable clauses that extend immunity to military officials, which could cause national security issues to Sri Lanka.   He was also doubtful of the $480 million Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) grant, as it created the space for the MCC to unilaterally pull out of the project if they wished. Jayasekera insisted such a step would be disadvantageous to Sri Lanka. He was less critical of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), as it had already been signed by Sri Lanka. 

“The MCC is giving money for specific projects the Sri Lankan Government has said it will carry out, but it also has the capacity to pull out of the agreement unilaterally if it’s not happy about something. If the MCC pulls out, it could push other multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to also question their arrangements with Sri Lanka. So we must be careful about these agreements. It is the President’s view that SOFA should not be signed.” 

Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe 

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