MS our candidate if SLPP ignores our strength: SLFP organisers

Pic by Nisal Baduge  

By Sandun A Jayasekera

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) district and constituent organisers yesterday (23) vowed that if the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) ignored the SLFP’s strength and took an arbitrary decision to field their own candidate at the forthcoming Presidential election, President Maithripala Sirisena would be their absolute choice for the big poll.   

They charged that certain back-benchers and local government members (Kewattayan -loosely translated as nincompoops) did not want opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa becoming the Prime Minister in the next government. Mahinda must realize this, they said.   

They must understand that though the United National Party (UNP) and the SLPP have more than five contenders each for the Presidential election, the SLFP has only one man as the party candidate and he is none other than incumbent President Sirisena.   

The SLFP District Organizer of Kalutara, Nalaka Tharanga told the media yesterday that certain SLPP back-benchers were attempting to disrupt the discussions started with the aim of forming an SLFP – SLPP led alliance to face the UNP and have still not realised that they will not be able to win a future election without unity between the two parties.   

‘We will try our best to come to a compromise with the SLPP but will have no choice but to field our party leader, President Sirisena, as our candidate if the talks collapse. Certain local government bodies under the SLPP are engaged in moves to entice SLFP members to join the SLPP and weaken the SLFP. They should realize that the SLFP vote base of 1.5 million achieved at the local government polls in February 2018 has increased and no party could win an election without our support, Tharanga said.   

Colombo District SLFP organiser, A.M.Pushpakumara equated negative remarks made about their party by certain back-benchers and organisers of the SLPP to abusing their own mother.   

They have been elected to Parliament and local government bodies as members of the UPFA. If we did not issue letters confirming that they are UPFA members to Parliament and the Elections Commission, they would have lost their party membership. They must at least be grateful for that to the UPFA and the SLFP, he stressed.   “We challenged the UPFA to win without the support of the SLFP if possible,” he said. “Some local government members and parliamentarians who entered Parliament for the first time in 2015 did not support the government led by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapsksa in October 2018. They also don’t want Mahinda becoming Prime Minister again. Mr. Rajapaksa must realize this,” he charged.