UPFA Crisis: Two Separate National List Nominees; MR Faction to Go To Courts

 

The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is set to handover two separate national list nominees to the elections commissioner shortly, according to party sources.

A senior UPFA member and a staunch loyalist of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that Susil Premajayanth, the sacked UPFA Secretary will hand over a list containing UPFA nominees for the national list slots in Parliament to the elections commissioner.

Meanwhile Prof. Wisva Warnapala who was appointed by the President Maithripala Sirisena as the new acting General Secretary of the UPFA is planning to submit a separate list of national list nominees.

Both Warnapala and Premajayanth on Tuesday had met the Commissioner of Elections Mahinda Deshapriya to discuss the matter.

Prof. Warnapala, when he arrived at the election secretariat on Tuesday had said that he will be dealing with all election related issues including the naming of the national list. The UPFA secured 12 national list slots at Monday’s polls.

Colombo district court issued an interim injunction effective until August 28, allowing Warnapala to carryout functions as the acting General Secretary of the UPFA.

However, election secretariat sources said that the Commissioner was yet to receive the court order.

Meanwhile the senior UPFA politician said that the Rajapaksa faction in the UPFA will go to courts over the sacking of Premajayanth.

He said that the removal of Premajayanth was both against the UPFA constitution and also polls laws.

He said that the UPFA Executive Council throughout had maintained that the sacking of Premajayanth was illegal.

In an effort to wrest control of the party President Sirisena who is both leader of the SLFP and UPFA removed 13 central committee members of the SLFP.

Earlier he had removed both Premajayanth and Anura Yapa who held the SLFP General Secretary’s post.

At the time Rajapaksa faction accused that this was done with the aim of taking control in appointing nominees to the national list.

The expelled SLFP CC members were Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, DM Jayaratne, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, John Seneviratne, Nirmala Kothalawala, Dilan Perera, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Dullas Alahapperuma, Prof GL Peiris and Kamala Ranatunga. (CT)

The President had appointed 13 new members who are loyal to him to replace the expelled members, and the newly appointed SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake had signed the appointment letters of the new members.