President Maithripala Sirisena will have to lead the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s campaign at the forthcoming polls to elect members to the local authorities, expected to take place at the end of the year, a SLFP source told Colombo Telegraph.
The above development comes in the wake of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who led the UPFA campaign in a loosing battle against the UNP at the last general election deciding to hand over the reigns to Sirisena.
A source close to Rajapaksa said that he has already conveyed this decision to Sirisena. This comes in the backdrop of several moves initiated by Sirisena to consolidate his power within the SLFP. However it is unclear which party Sirisena will lead, the SLFP or the coalition UPFA in which the SLFP is the major stakeholder. According to SLFP sources the party is most likely to pull out of the UPFA shortly.
Already the SLFP is divided with a majority supporting the national government mooted by Wickremesinghe and Sirisena and others joining the remnants of the UPFA led by Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Udaya Gammanpila, Kumara Welgama and Dinesh Gunawardena.
This UPFA remnant group is planning to be the major opposition in the new parliament which will sit for the first time tomorrow.
Also they are planning to propose Kumara Welgama, the Kalutara district parliamentarian as the opposition leader.
Earlier in the day the President had told some UPFA leaders that the opposition will be permitted to appoint its own leader in parliament. Earlier the SLFP CC decided that President as the head of the party could take a decision as to who will be the opposition leader.
Meanwhile UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella told media that the powers of appointing the opposition leader were vested with the speaker.
Also the TNA has thrown its hat in to the ring claiming that the opposition leaders post should be theirs for the taking as the SLFP already has signed a MoU with the UNP to set up a national government.
Rajapaksa has conveyed to the UPFA remnants that he will sit as a back bencher for a short period and resign from politics afterwards. However, according to a source close to the former President, Rajapaksa may remain in parliament and bide his time if the new national government does fail to click as a strong unit.
Before the general election President Sirisena said that the Local Government polls will be held after the parliamentary polls.
The local bodies whose terms have been lapsed are currently being administered by special commissioners in accordance with the Local Authority Act.
The government in March extended the official term of 234 local government bodies, which was due to expire by the 31st of March, until the 15th of May. The terms of other remaining LG institutes are to expire in October.
Amarasiri / September 1, 2015
RE: Sirisena To Lead SLFP At Upcoming Local Government Polls
“President Maithripala Sirisena will have to lead the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s campaign at the forthcoming polls to elect members to the local authorities, expected to take place at the end of the year, a SLFP source told Colombo Telegraph.”
So MaRa MaRa Chatu MaRa Amana MaRa is not needed for SLFP.
It will be interesting to see how the voters will vote.
With this MaRa should get the message. Retire to Medamulana and fish in the Indian Ocean.
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Park / September 1, 2015
M3 is fast becoming a Non-M3. He has back tracked on most of his promies to us he made before he became the President, and also after becoming President. First of all he said he will not give nomination to Rajapakse, he did. He said he will be neutral at the election, but he did not. Then he said “horunta no chance” but he gave a chance. Not only that he has given them Ministerial positions. Shame on you M3.
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Sylvia Haik / September 1, 2015
If this is all M3 has done, he must be a saint. There is not enough space to write the wrongs the Rajapakses have done. You should kiss M3’s feet for saving us all from the abyss the Rajapakses were leading us to.
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Gilbert / September 1, 2015
Now the President MS has reached a decisive point. In order to gain ideological legitimacy in the SLFP President MS has to declare where he sits in terms of commencing a Domestic Inquiry into alleged War-crimes & whether he stands for devolving power in the Centre using a Federal Model?
It is interesting to see his approach to overcome this ideological paradox that he created.
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Dinuk / September 1, 2015
Look at who Sirisena put on national list of the SLFP?! A total disgrace – corrupt clowns like Thilanga Sumathipala who should be behind bars, Susil Premajayantha the Petrol hora who also should be behind bars, and other rejects of the voters.
Sirisena seems to lack the ability to find any honest, intelligent and talented people to groom as leaders of the SLFP party, so it will be MRs cronies who will now become Sirisena’s cronies at the Provincial govt. level.
More of the same rot!
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Patriot / September 1, 2015
Ironically, Susil Premajayantha the [Edited out] will be Sirisena’s choice for the Petroleum Minister.
Not that Sirisena lacks the ability to find any honest, intelligent and talented people, he himself lacks all that.
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Sapumal / September 1, 2015
What we need to is president to be independent from party politics. It didn’t happened. Now it is very clear that in this trend he is going to loose his credibility as the man who became the symbol of January 08 revaluation. We understand your position and we had the idea , you became the symbol. However, we are fed up with SLFP rogues and corrupted bunch. No more please. Even if president going lead the local polls for SLFP at this time you will definetly loose with humiliation. Don’t do it.
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Shamil / September 1, 2015
UNP will win.
SLFP has no future for atleast 20 years.
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K.A Sumanasekera / September 1, 2015
Imagine the throng of poor rural Sinhala Buddhists at the SLFP rallies to welcome Bodhi Sira and his boss Madam ….
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Native Vedda / September 1, 2015
KASmaalam K.A Sumanasekera
“Imagine the throng of poor rural Sinhala Buddhists at the SLFP rallies to welcome Bodhi Sira and his boss Madam ….”
Don’t the throng of poor rural Sinhala Buddhists have anything better to do?
Aspiration, focus, determination, hard work, perseverance ………. key to success, not life long dedication to carry politician’s b***s, following you as a role model.
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K.A Sumanasekera / September 2, 2015
Dear Native ,
I must be the only Dalit who lives among the Vellala Elite on the beach side next to Marine Drive..
Doesn’t that sum up all those parameters which you reckon, we should have?. .
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Native Vedda / September 2, 2015
KASmaalam K.A Sumanasekera
“Doesn’t that sum up all those parameters which you reckon, we should have?. . “
I was referring to progress as individual, not the moral decadence you have come to symbolise.
Now that your MAR(U)A SIRA is sitting in the opposition what hope is there for him to become head of state in the near future? Oh by the way he has been compelled to retire into oblivion by his sisters.
In case if he retires, whose b***s are you planning to carry? Dayan’s perhaps.
How is the morale among the MR’s b***s carriers? I know some of them are heart broken while others are optimistic. I can see the similarities between VP’s and MR’s b***s carriers.
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sensible citizen / September 1, 2015
It is easy to pick wrongs in anybody’s action. Everyone knows politics is a game of strategy. I think in the grand scheme of actions so far, Mother Lanka has progressed far beyond the jungle law existed. In order to carry out the real life issue like Economy, development, cost of living, employment, health care, education, environment he needs to avoid the distraction of a battle in all fronts. Smart strategists suggests to get the enemies into the fold and slowly neutralize the disease. I think Sirisena could be in for another admiration in a year or two for the cronies
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Aia / September 1, 2015
Maithili is not a saint, he is a average folk and behaved like it for a few months. The power of HE has caught up with him and he tasted it, to find it was not as bad as he thought to be, when he was still a president candidate and made some stupid promises. What makes him look good is the lesser devil image he acquired contesting with MR, is he lucky. Now, he trying to make things happen for him rather than waiting for things happen for him, wise man!
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Douglas / September 2, 2015
In a way if President Sirisena takes over the task of handling the PC elections, it is better for the country. At the recently concluded Parliamentary Elections we saw how the SLFP/UPLF handled the nominations. I think the President, though signed the papers, he was more or less “forced” to or his arms were “twisted” to get those people in by the ex President. We also saw how the ex President Mr. MR immediately after the 2010 Presidential election filled those PCs with his henchmen and goons with a view to establish himself as the “Maha Raja” of Sri Lanka. He did not care who those people were, so long as they did obey to his dictates and that very irresponsible and highhandedness in the selection ruined the entire Local government system. Hopefully, if President Sirisena is given this task of handling the PC elections, we could at least expect some DECENT, LAW ABIDING people of some caliber to be nominated to contest, to restore the lost dignity of those institutions. For certain MR must not be given any hand in that matter because he proved an utter failure in the selection of people to hold responsible positions in Governing. For now let him “enjoy” that front seat offered in the Parliament.
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Supun Jayawardhane / September 2, 2015
Actually, MR s situaton to this date is like a man became naked forever. Shameless bugger makes now every effort to paint the picture as if he noticed nothing. Real true colours of the man is still out of our sight. I really dont think that anyone knows him well. Even his wife would not know who is real MR.
His power collapsed as a glass fell down instantly breaking into small pieces. Those men and men coughed being joined to MR have lost in the same manner. All in all MY3 led Yahapalana won for the future of the country.
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