UNP confident against ex-president

Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party (UNP) on Wednesday expressed confidence that former President Mahinda Rajapakse will not be able to make a come back to politics.

UNP Legislator and Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Perera has told the Xinhua news agency that even President Maithripala Sirisena, who is the leader of the political party of which Rajapakse is a member, will ensure that he is not given a place at the elections.

Sri Lanka is expected to hold parliamentary elections after April 23 and there have been reports that Rajapakse will contest if not under his political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP), then under another party.

“He will not be able to contest from the SLFP because the leader of the SLFP is the current president. The President will not allow Mahinda Rajapakse to contest from this party. Then he will have to create a new party or contest under some other party, “ Perera said.

Perera said the former president had become “weak” since his defeat at the Jan. 8 presidential elections.

“The defeated Mahinda Rajapakse is definitely weaker than earlier,” he said. The Sri Lanka Labour Party, a minority political party in the island nation, announced on Tuesday that Rajapakse would contest as prime minister in the upcoming parliamentary elections under their party.

The party said they had even requested the Elections Commission to change the existing party symbol under directions of the former president.