The in-fighting over National list nominees within parties continues for the second week after the general election.
The Election Commission had not received the names of two National list nominees from two parties by yesterday evening. The SLPP, SJB and NPP finalised their National lists last Friday.
The UNP which lost all its seats at the election and won only one National seat and the Ven.Rathana Thera led Ape Jana Bala Party which also won one National seat were struggling to finalise their National lists even by yesterday, sources said.
Soon after the election defeat, UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was to step down and nominate a person from their National list to fill the slot. However, after several rounds of discussions during the past ten days, the party had still not agreed on a name.
Former MP John Amaratunga tops the green party’s National list. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya led by Sajith Premadasa has been accused by its coalition partners - SLMC, National Unity Front of Azath Sally and Tamil Progressive Alliance led by Mano Ganesan for not including one of their members in the National list seats.
At a media briefing, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Deputy Leader Hafiz Nasir Ahmed who was recently elected as a Member of Parliament from the Batticaloa District condemned Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa for not providing a National List representation from the SLMC despite the MOU signed before the election. Azath Sally in a video on social media rapped Premadasa for not including any minority representation in the SJB National list.
This issue was raised at a meeting at the TNA leader R.Sampanthan’s residence yesterday on the ITAK National list.
Nomination of the National list parliamentarian Thavarasa Kalayarasan was the main topic of discussion at the committee meeting of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchi yesterday at the TNA leader’s home in Trincomalee.
Parliamentarian R. Sampanthan told the media that there will be no changes in the nomination list but they will continue to look into the controversial issue of the nomination at the forthcoming central committee meeting on August 29 at Vavuniya.
ITAK leader Mavai Senathirajah, parliamentarians M.A Sumanthiran and S. Shritharan, Northern Provincial Council and former chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam participated.