{"id":42165,"date":"2015-07-15T18:12:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T22:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42165"},"modified":"2015-07-15T22:44:42","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T02:44:42","slug":"slfp-in-deep-crisis-after-president-sirisena-denounces-candidacy-of-mahinda-rajapaksa-on-upfa-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42165","title":{"rendered":"SLFP in Deep Crisis After President Sirisena Denounces Candidacy of Mahinda Rajapaksa on UPFA Ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was plunged into crisis yesterday, after President Maithripala Sirisena denounced his predecessor\u2019s candidacy on the UPFA ticket and Rajapaksa loyalists renewed attempts to wrest control of the alliance.<\/p>\n

A high-stakes game of political chess between Presidents incumbent and former continued yesterday with Mahinda Rajapaksa securing an appointment as head of the UPFA Elections Operations Committee only one day after President Sirisena strongly opposed his candidacy.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa loyalists held an emergency meeting at the SLFP Darley Road Headquarters that had previously been cancelled by President Maithripala Sirisena, issuing a direct challenge to the President\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

Hours later, SLFP member Prasanna Solongaarachchi filed a motion in court to prevent the SLFP Central Committee being convened without approval from the party leader. <\/p>\n

The Colombo District Court issued an injunction preventing the Central Committee from convening without the permission from SLFP Chairman, President Siriena.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Earlier yesterday President Sirisena wrote to SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, ordering him to cancel the Central Committee meeting that had been convened without his permission.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who attended the meeting, was seated at the head of the table, flanked by the General Secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha.<\/p>\n

A letter dated 3 July, appointing Rajapaksa as leader of the UPFA election campaign was also released to the media by Secretary Premajayantha. He said the decision had been made with President Sirisena\u2019s concurrence the same day he had agreed to grant Rajapaksa the nomination on the UPFA ticket.<\/p>\n

The meeting followed President Sirisena\u2019s shocking speech at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday, where he predicted Rajapaksa\u2019s defeat and claimed he had tried to block the former President\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

A meeting of the SLFP Central Committee called last evening by General Secretary Yapa has also been cancelled by the President.<\/p>\n

Moves are afoot to sideline Sirisena from the UPFA and the SLFP after party seniors said his remarks had badly damaged their chances at the August election.<\/p>\n

Sirisena flayed former President Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka\u2019s only sitting president to have contested the presidency and lost his seat, and ridiculed him for now seeking power through Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll other presidents served two terms and left office with their dignity intact. Now he has set the record as the only sitting president to be defeated at an election,\u201d Sirisena said.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s speech was President Sirisena\u2019s first public admission that he was fighting Rajapaksa for internal control of the SLFP and the UPFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe removed presidential term limits and set himself up to contest for life, depriving all others in the UPFA the chance to contest. Now what is he trying to do? He wants to deprive SLFP seniors of the opportunity to become Prime Minister by claiming that title for himself,\u201d the President charged.<\/p>\n

Sources said his loyalists had met with former President Rajapaksa at his Mirihana residence last morning to determine how to respond to the President\u2019s fiery assault on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Premajayantha however told reporters there were no moves to oust President Sirisena as UPFA leader. \u201cEven if President Sirisena says Mahinda Rajapaksa is going to lose, our position is that he is going to win,\u201d Premajayantha told the media outside the SLFP Headquarters.<\/p>\n

SLFP General Secretary Anura Yapa also spoke to media after the meeting, saying the party\u2019s sole aim was to defeat the UNP at the forthcoming election. \u201cToday the SLFP is united,\u201d Yapa said.<\/p>\n

The SLFP General Secretary said the party would be making a decision about President Sirisena\u2019s statement on Tuesday at the Central Committee meeting later last evening. \u201cI don\u2019t want to speak of these things publicly,\u201d Yapa asserted.<\/p>\n

Former UPFA Matara District MP and staunch Rajapaksa loyalist Dulles Alahapperuma criticised the President\u2019s remarks on Tuesday saying it was the first time in the history of world politics that the leader of one party had declared he had dissolved parliament in order to rescue the leader of another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked by the President\u2019s statement,\u201d Alahapperuma said. <\/p>\n

Mahinda to respond to Maithripala at Anuradhapura rally <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa who is contesting as a UPFA candidate in the Kurunegala District at the August 17 parliamentary election, told reporters yesterday that his response to President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s speech on Tuesday would be made at the party\u2019s maiden rally in Anuradhapura on Friday (17). <\/p>\n

The former President who chaired a meeting at the SLFP\u2019s Darley Road Headquarters yesterday, in an apparent attempt to wrest control of the UPFA\u2019s election campaign, spoke to reporters on his way into the building.<\/p>\n

President Sirisena claimed yesterday that he had stood firmly against Rajapaksa\u2019s candidacy at the parliamentary election and predicted the ex President would be defeated in the August poll. <\/p>\n

President Sirisena speech is motivating says UPFA <\/strong><\/p>\n

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said that President Sirisena\u2019s special statement has motivated all UPFA nominees as well as activists and supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Sirisena expressed in his speech that Rajapaksa was going to lose again. Our main goal is to defeat United National Party (UNP). We believe it is a kind of a challenge. However we accept President Sirisena\u2019s statement as a blessing since it has motivated us. <\/p>\n

Former President Rajapaksa will lead us for the victory,\u201d Premajayantha emphasised. <\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was plunged into crisis yesterday, after President Maithripala Sirisena denounced his predecessor\u2019s candidacy on the UPFA ticket and Rajapaksa loyalists renewed attempts to wrest control of the alliance. A high-stakes game of political chess between Presidents incumbent and former continued yesterday with Mahinda Rajapaksa securing an …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘SLFP in Deep Crisis After President Sirisena Denounces Candidacy of Mahinda Rajapaksa on UPFA Ticket’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42166,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42165\/revisions\/42166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}