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Rajapaksa faction wants MR to lead campaign; Nimal says CC must decide
Permitting former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead the UPFA’s election campaign and the inclusion of him in the nomination board are among the conditions to be put forward to President Maithripala Sirisena for the unification of the alliance, some party members said yesterday.
However, Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva, reacting to the conditions of the pro-Rajapaksa faction, said any proposals would need the approval of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Central Committee and the Executive Committee. “Only if there is majority consensus, will we be agreeable to these conditions,” he said.
The conditions are to be placed when Mr. Rajapaksa meets President Sirisena for the first one-on-one meeting, likely to take place within the next two weeks.Former Transport Minister Kumar Welgama said that the condition that Mr. Rajapaksa should lead the campaign would be placed on the basis that he would be able to attract a bigger number of votes.
He said that during the proposed talks, Mr. Rajapaksa would also seek an assurance for the cancellation of the gazette notification under which the Financial Crimes Investigations Unit (FCID) was set up on the grounds that the unit was set up to ‘politically victimise’ opposition members including former UPFA ministers.
Calling for an assurance from the President to end what Mr. Welgama called harassment of UPFA members and supporters would be another demand of the former President. The UPFA faction backing Mr. Rajapaksa, earlier had demanded that the former President wanted to be the prime ministerial candidate, but now has dropped the demand.
Former minister T.B. Ekanayaka, also backing Mr. Rajapaksa said they were no longer demanding that the former President should be made the prime ministerial candidate ahead of the elections. ‘We need Mr. Rajapaksa to lead the campaign. The prime minister can be decided on the consensus of the MPs,” he added.