(UTV|COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera yesterday said his party and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) should decide on a Presidential candidate together, and that warned unless they were consulted, the SLFP will have to field its own candidate at an upcoming Presidential Election.
Speaking at SLFP headquarters, Jayasekera insisted that the SLPP should consult the SLFP so that both parties could decide together which candidate they will field for the Presidential Election. The SLPP has already stated they will be announcing their Presidential candidate at the first national convention organised by the SLPP on 11 August, and the policy framework of the candidate in October. The SLPP has already stated its candidate will be picked by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.
However, Jayasekera told reporters that the SLFP’s expectation is that the SLFP and SLPP will decide on a Presidential candidate together. “The decision of who will be the Presidential candidate is one that must be made together. The SLFP and the SLPP must make a joint call on who they will back at the election. The SLPP cannot make a decision without including us, and then expect us to blindly back their person. If that happens, then the SLFP will respond by fielding our own candidate,” Dayasiri said.
The two parties have been engaged in extensive decisions over the last few months, to form a coalition to contest the upcoming Presidential Elections. The discussions are expected to wrap up on 10 August, ahead of the SLPP’s national convention.
However, discussions have not always gone smoothly with the SLPP criticising the SLFP of seeking to delay Presidential Elections by seeking a second Supreme Court clarification on when President Maithripala Sirisena’s term will end. This week the SLPP also questioned statements made by Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya that it would be possible to hold Provincial Council Elections before 15 October, provided the necessary legal provisions are made. The SLPP criticised the statements as a covert attempt to delay Presidential Elections.
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