27 July 2021 12:00 am Views - 85
A Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) delegation led by its leader Maithripala Sirisena requested President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to introduce electoral reforms as an amendment to the present constitution unless a new constitution could be worked out, a party official said.The SLFP delegation called on the president to discuss grievances of the party.
Party’s General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara who attended the meeting told Daily Mirror that the president was receptive to the idea that electoral reforms should be introduced in the form of an amendment unless a new constitution could be enacted repealing the present one.
He said the SLFP stands for a mix of the First Past the Post System and Proportional Representation without preferential voting.
Also, he said his party brought to the notice of the president that farmers had been agitated in some areas due to lack of fertilizer for their cultivation such as tea and betel.
“Whatever anyone might say, people have not got fertilizer in some areas. It is a huge issue. We told it to the president,” he said.
Besides, the SLFP informed the president that its local government representatives had been disregarded in the assignment of development projects for implementation at grassroot level. Mr. Jayasekara said the members of the trade unions affiliated to the SLFP were forced to obtain membership of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) at various institutions.
Ministers Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Mahinda Amaraweera, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Duminda Dissanayake and MP Ranjith Siyambalapitiya attended the meeting.