{"id":42773,"date":"2015-08-20T17:15:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T21:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42773"},"modified":"2015-08-20T17:16:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T21:16:23","slug":"slfp-led-by-president-sirisena-to-join-national-unity-govt-with-unp-but-mahinda-loyalists-in-upfa-will-oppose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42773","title":{"rendered":"SLFP Led by President Sirisena to Join national Unity Govt with UNP but Mahinda Loyalists in UPFA to Oppose Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>\n

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

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headed by President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday decided to back a national unity government that will cohabit with the UNFGG which emerged as the single largest party in Parliament in Monday\u2019s election for at least two years.<\/p>\n

SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake told reporters that the party\u2019s Central Committee had granted President Sirisena full authority to form a national government under his leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President emphasised that a national unity government was necessary at this juncture to overcome international and economic challenges facing the country,\u201d Dissanayake told reporters outside the presidential residence following the meeting.<\/p>\n

Asked which party would hold the premiership in the unity government, Dissanayake said traditionally the prime minister was appointed from the party that won the most number of seats in Parliament through an election.Dissanayake explained that President Sirisena had appointed a six-member committee headed by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga to draft a memorandum of understanding to be signed with the UNFGG.<\/p>\n

The committee also comprises Nimal Siripala De Silva, Susil Premajayantha, Mahinda Samarasinghe, S.B. Dissanayake and Dr. Sarath Amunugama. <\/p>\n

The SLFP Central Committee is reported to have been the scene of some heated arguments when elected MPs loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected the idea of joining the UNP-led national government.<\/p>\n

President Sirisena as chair of the SLFP convened a Central Committee meeting at his official residence, yesterday. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was the first time the party\u2019s key decision-making body was meeting in over a month, after Sirisena loyalist Prasanna Solongarachchi obtained a court order preventing former General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa from convening the committee without explicit permission from the party chairman. <\/p>\n

The legal action sought to prevent Yapa and other Rajapaksa loyalists from meeting to oust President Sirisena as Party Chairman and appoint the former President in his place in retaliation to the President\u2019s scathing statement on Rajapaksa\u2019s nomination on 14 July.<\/p>\n

Chandrika Kumaratunga charts new chapter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday attended a SLFP Central Committee meeting after 10 years yesterday.<\/p>\n

He participation was seen as crucial given the role she played in the run up to bringing Maithripala Sirisena as the Common Opposition Candidate for the 8 January Presidential election and the last stages of campaigning for the 17 August General election.<\/p>\n

President Maithirpala Sirisena yesterday appointed a six-member committee headed by Ms. Kumaratunga to draft a memorandum of understanding to be signed with the UNFGG towards forming a national government. <\/p>\n

The committee also comprises Nimal Siripala De Silva, Susil Premajayantha, Mahinda Samarasinghe, S.B. Dissanayake and Dr. Sarath Amunugama. <\/p>\n

UPFA to play spoiler; will oppose national govt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A coterie of Rajapaksa loyalists in the United People\u2019s Freedom Alliance has decided to continue to play spoiler, opposing the SLFP decision to join a national government.<\/p>\n

The UPFA MP group meeting at the Colombo residence of newly-elected Gampaha District MP Prasanna Ranatunga, decided it would oppose plans to join a Government headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

The meeting was attended by UPFA MPs Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Dinesh Gunewardane and others. UPFA Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa also participated in the meeting, sources said.<\/p>\n


\nSLFP MPs meet President, Mahinda skips meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newly-elected SLFP MPs met with President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, the Presidential Media Division said.<\/p>\n

Former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, former Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva and ousted general secretaries Anura Yapa and Susil Premajayantha were prominently seated near President Sirisena at the meeting.<\/p>\n

UPFA Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa, also a member of the SLFP, failed to show up for the meeting.<\/p>\n

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

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

By Dharisha Bastians The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headed by President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday decided to back a national unity government that will cohabit with the UNFGG which emerged as the single largest party in Parliament in Monday\u2019s election for at least two years. SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake told reporters that the party\u2019s …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘SLFP Led by President Sirisena to Join national Unity Govt with UNP but Mahinda Loyalists in UPFA to Oppose Move’ »<\/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\/42773"}],"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=42773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42775,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42773\/revisions\/42775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}