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Friday, 15 February 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Nuwan Senarathna
United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) still has not ruled out the possibility of a common candidate for the Presidential Election, despite Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa’s earlier statement that the Party will not support anyone outside the Party as a Presidential candidate under any circumstances.
“The final decision on the common candidate will be taken after a lengthy discussion between President Maithripala Sirisena and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. I can assure that there will not be any disagreement over the common Presidential candidate and no decision will be taken without both their participation,” UPFA MP S.B. Dissanayake told reporters at MP Thilanga Sumathipala’s residence.
He noted that the UPFA would not change its stance, even though SLPP members had on several occasions said they would prefer to field their own candidate, and not someone from a different Party. Defending Basil Rajapaksa’s statement, Dissanayake said Rajapaksa’s statement was only targeted at SLPP members in order to strengthen the party.
“It is obvious that Basil Rajapaksa targeted his party members, and it is fair from his point of view as he is the National Organiser of the Party,” he added.
He pointed out every party has their own preferences for Presidential candidate, but at the end of the day, the final call would be made as a group that would involve both the SLFP and the SLPP. He noted all progressive forces would join with them to defeat the United National Party (UNP) in the upcoming elections, and that the SLFP and SLPP both have several promising candidates, while the UNP, in his view, had none.
“We have strong candidates like Maithripala Sirisena, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Chamal Rajapaksa, and Dinesh Gunawardena, but when it comes to the UNP, there is no winning candidate,” he added.
Speaking of the new political alliance that the SLFP, SLPP and other UPFA members are in the process of building, MP Thilanga Sumathipala, who is a member of the Committee which was appointed to look into possibilities of forming a new political alliance, said such an alliance will take more time. “We are not in a hurry to announce our new alliance, such as its name, as it is a wide and complex process, which means it will take some time to set up the mechanism. We will also have to use different approaches for different scenarios. When it comes to Provincial Elections, we have to follow an approach which suits that, and at a Presidential Election we have to adapt for that as well. Therefore this is a complex process,” he said.
