{"id":166582,"date":"2016-08-18T13:08:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T07:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=166582"},"modified":"2016-08-18T13:08:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T07:38:33","slug":"slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=13&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> is yet to make a final decision on his attendance at the 65th Convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), scheduled to be held on September 4.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_148138\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-148138\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-148138\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"Rajapaksa\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg 639w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-148138\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rajapaksa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A formal invitation was handed over to Rajapaksa by Minister W D J Seneviratne at Rajapaksa\u2019s Mirihana residence. However even though the former President had accepted the invitation, he has still not decided whether to attend the convention, which will be held under the patronage of his one-time confidante turned political rival, incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, the convention will be held in Kurunegala, which is Rajapaksa\u2019s constituency. He contested last August\u2019s Parliamentary Election from the Kurunegala district, ditching his home constituency, Hambantota.<\/p>\n<p>Both, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Kumaratunga who are former Presidents are senior patrons of the SLFP.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, several SLFP local government representatives has said they will boycott the convention if it is held under the patronage of Sirisena. Citing reasons for their decision, the representatives including former Pradeshiya Sabha chairmen said that Sirisena had taken the leadership of SLFP by force from Rajapaksa, and therefore they do not recognize him as the president of the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":148138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-18T07:38:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"639\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/\",\"name\":\"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-18T07:38:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg\",\"width\":639,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2016-08-18T07:38:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":639,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/","name":"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-18T07:38:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg","width":639,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/slfp-convention-rajapaksa-contemplating-to-go-or-not-to-go\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SLFP Convention: Rajapaksa Contemplating \u2018To Go Or Not To Go\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Mahinda2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166583,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166582\/revisions\/166583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}