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Tuesday, 3 May 2016 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Dharisha Bastians
President Maithripala Sirisena will allow the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Central Committee to make a decision on action to be taken against some 40 members of the party who attended the ‘Joint Opposition’ May Day rally on Sunday.
Senior Presidential aides told Daily FT that the antics of the pro-Rajapaksa faction of the SLFP ahead of May Day, and their decision to attend the Joint Opposition rally in Kirulapone instead of the SLFP rally in Galle, marked a ‘turning point’ in party’s factional battles.
President Sirisena, who is Chairman of the SLFP, will allow his party’s Central Committee to determine the course of disciplinary action to be taken against SLFP members in breach of party discipline, the aides said. The Central Committee of the SLFP is expected to meet in the near future to make these decisions, they said.
The SLFP’s official May Day rally in Galle had attracted unprecedented crowds, they added. Many could not be accommodated because the ground was packed to capacity, the aides claimed.
Ahead of the May Day show of force rallies by the two SLFP factions, President Sirisena sacked 11 party organisers and police obtained an injunction preventing Joint Opposition crowds from gathering at Shalika Grounds in Colombo 05 on Friday.
The moves were aimed at crippling the Rajapaksa faction’s organisational strength ahead of the Kirulapone rally, observers said. Many of the organisers sacked by the President had been suspected of mobilising crowds for the Joint Opposition Rally instead of the one presided over by the President in Galle on Sunday.
However the Mahinda Rajapaksa led Kirulapone rally on Sunday also attracted massive crowds that travelled to Colombo in hundreds of buses from different districts of the island.
Several previous breaches of party discipline by a large SLFP faction still loyal to former President Rajapaksa have gone largely unpunished.
