Reiterating the party’s stand, SLFP National Organiser Duminda Dissanayake MP told the SLFP’s Anuradhapura District Convention on Friday, February 1, that incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena would be their next Presidential candidate irrespective of the alliance with the SLPP.
“Following a request made by me as the Party’s National Organiser, the inaugural meeting of the SLFP’s restructuring program was launched in Anuradhapura where a resolution was moved by me to nominate President Sirisena as the SLFP’s next Presidential candidate. It was seconded by former Minister Tissa Karaliyadde.
“The SLFP is unanimous that Maithripala Sirisena should be the SLFP’s candidate and nobody else,” Dissanayake said.
“This is the position that he maintained right from the beginning but as a formality the resolution was moved. Presently, several names are being mentioned. The SLFP is always prepared to coalesce with the SLPP. The SLFP has the ability to align with the SLPP or with any other political party but we have to safeguard the SLFP ideology. When we are going to align with one or more political parties, we cannot stick to our ideology alone, but we must be receptive to other opinions as well. There is no problem of arriving at a common candidate.
“If President Sirisena could offer the premiership to his political rival who contested the Presidency against him, I think it won’t be a problem for the SLPP group to support him. Not only that, even the parliamentary seats of Mahinda Rajapaksa and other members of the SLPP were secured due to UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera’s confirmation, in black and white, of their SLFP membership,”he said.