Rajapaksa slams SLFP organisers’ removal

MP Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday slammed the removal of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organisers and insisted that it would strengthen the United National Party (UNP) ahead of the upcoming Local Government elections. 

Given below is Rajapaksa’s full statement. 

Several SLFP electoral organisers including Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, C.B. Ratnayake, Gamini Lokuge, Keheliya Rambukwella and others have been removed from their electoral organiserships by the president. This is the latest round of reprisals against SLFP members associated with the Joint Opposition. 

On earlier occasions, Dilum Amunugama, Salinda Dissanayake, S.M. Chandrasena, Geetha Kumarasinghe and Prasanna Ranatunga were similarly removed from their organiserships. Puttalam District parliamentarian Sanath Nishantha has been suspended from the party. This persecution has effectively caused a split in the SLFP.

Popular organisers of the SLFP are being removed and replaced with less popular politicians in order to weaken the SLFP and to confer an advantage on the UNP. Parliamentarian Sanath Nishantha, whose party membership has been suspended, got the highest preference votes among all political parties in the Puttalam District. 

Many of the electoral organisers who have been removed are among the top two or three in their respective districts. For example, Prasanna Ranatunga got the highest preference votes in the Gampaha District, S.M. Chandrasena came first in the Anuradhapura District, Dilum Amunugama came third in the Kandy District, Rohitha Abeygunawardena came second in the Kalutara District, C.B. Ratnayake came second in the Nuwara Eliya District after Arumugam Thondaman and Pavithra Wanniarachchi came third in the Ratnapura District.

These are all very popular politicians in their districts and stalwarts of the SLFP. Since the last parliamentary election 17 members of the SLFP central committee have been sacked. Nationally-known figures have been replaced with individuals who are either defeated candidates or politicians who have got much fewer preference votes even at the provincial council level. 

Such changes are designed to weaken the SLFP and to give the UNP the upper hand when it comes to an election. The responsibility for splitting the SLFP by removing its most popular electoral organisers will finally have to be borne by the President who is the leader of the party.

What we are now seeing is the second phase in the plan to destroy the SLFP. The first was the dissolving of the local government institutions the vast majority of which were controlled by the SLFP. These local government institutions would have been immensely helpful to the party in the event of any election. Yet all these were dissolved, giving a clear advantage to the UNP. The coalition between the UNP and the SLFP was extended from two years to five years without seeking the views of the SLFP central committee, the executive committee or even the SLFP government parliamentary group. I call upon all members of the SLFP to carefully observe these moves that are being made to weaken the party and give the UNP the upper hand.

Removing organisers was not to take revenge: Dissanayake

​By Chamodi Gunawardana

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake yesterday rejected that President Maithripala Sirisena’s removal of key organisers was an act of revenge, saying it was for the benefit of the party. 

Speaking to reporters at the SLFP weekly briefing at the party’s headquarters, Dissanayake claimed the reason to sack the organisers was because they were unable to accomplish the assigned task of reorganising the party. 

“The real organiser should stick with the party and its policies, but not around one person. Their behaviour and speech should be relevant for the party’s progress. Not oppose it. Therefore President Sirisena decided to remove some of them because they violated party tradition,” he said.

Dissanayake added that the President as the leader of the party had the right to change more organiser portfolios when needed.  When reporters questioned whether organiser positions would only be given to Sirisena loyalists, Dissanayake said that all the newly-appointed organisers had supported former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the last presidential election.  “We have vacant electorate organiser positions in the North and East provinces. The President will nominate skilled SLFPers for those portfolios despite the loyalty towards any former leader,” he added.

However, most of the removed SLFP organisers were popular politicians in their districts such as Gamini Lokuge, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Keheliya Rambukwella, C.B. Ratnayake, Pavithra Wanniarachchi and former MP Uditha Lokubandara.  “The SLFP’s only concern is the commitment to carry the party’s responsibilities not the popularity of any single person.”  Speaking about the SLFP’s 65th convention on 4 September in Kurunegala’s Maligapitiya ground, Dissanayake said he had already sent invitation letters to each and every SLFPer including Joint Opposition members disregarding their different political ideologies.

“One of our senior ministers handed over the invitation letter to ex-President Rajapaksa and he had accepted it,” he stated. However, Rajapaksa announced on Thursday that he would not attend the celebrations as he would be overseas.