‘A crucial change will take place within the party soon’: SLFP
Thursday, 19 March 2015 00:21
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By Jayashika Padmasiri
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday said that rifts within their party would cease before the Ratnapura pro-Mahinda Rajapaksa rally and an agreement satisfying all party members would be achieved soon.
SLFP Parliamentarian and former Minister of Disaster Management, Mahinda Amaraweera, at a media conference held in Colombo, said that a crucial change would take place inside the SLFP within the next few days.
“When this crucial change within the party happens that will put all SLFP members on one platform and everyone will be united. This is an internal problem of the party which will be settled soon. There is a group of people that wants to create a rift within the party, however they will not succeed and before the Ratnapura rally takes place a lot within the SLFP will change. Nevertheless, we will not banish anybody from our party,” Amaraweera added.
Commenting further, he predicted that after this crucial change took place within the SLFP, the United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would want to postpone the general election.
Expressing his views over speculation that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa would contest the forthcoming general election, Amaraweera noted that the SLFP would give him the opportunity to contest the election if he wanted to, while saying that Rajapaksa had won a special place in the hearts of all SLFP members.
“We do not think that the former President will break away from the SLFP. That is what the UNP wants, but that will not happen. We have a lot of respect and love for President Rajapaksa in our hearts and if he says that he wants to contest at the upcoming election, then the party will allocate that. Even I am ready to give up my electorate and offer it to him if he wants to contest,” Amaraweera said.
