Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says that removing popular figures in the SLFP from their electoral organiser positions is a move calculated not to strengthen the SLFP but to ensure the victory of the UNP.

Issuing a  statement today (27), he charged that from time to time during the past two years, SLFP parliamentarians in the opposition have been removed from their electoral organiser positions by the SLFP leader. 

“In the latest round of purges, Janaka Bandara Tennakon has been sacked with no account taken of the immense services rendered by him to the SLFP in the Matale district. His father T.B.Tennakoon was not only a founding member of the SLFP but also a key figure in the political revolution of 1956.” 

He stated that the services rendered to the SLFP and the country by the late Anuruddha Ratwatte have been ignored when the SLFP leader sacked his son Lohan Ratwatte from his electoral organisership.  

“The party leader has to take the entire responsibility for causing a split in the SLFP by removing the most popular individuals in the party from their electoral organiserships.” 

He charged that sacking SLFP parliamentarians who have refused to prop up the UNP government from their electoral organiserships while retaining the SLFP parliamentarians who are propping up the UNP government, is a move calculated to strengthen the UNP, not the SLFP. 

“Parliamentarians of the SLFP who have remained in the opposition in accordance with the mandate they received at the 2015 Parliamentary election have been sacked from the SLFP central committee as well.” 

“However nothing has been able to prevent this dysfunctional government that is kept in office under the patronage of the SLFP leader, from declining in popularity with each passing day,” he added. 

“If the government cannot govern effectively even with a group of SLFP parliamentarians propping them up, the SLFP members serving in the government should ask themselves why they are still on board this sinking ship.” 

“The SLFP may get members of ethnic and religious political parties from the north and east that never vote for the SLFP or celebrate May Day to attend their rallies with free sightseeing trips thrown in as an incentive, with the hope of bamboozling the people.” 

“However the indefinite postponement of the local government elections show that the government does have a realistic assessment of their popularity at this point in time.”