President Maithripala Sirisena has finally agreed to give nomination to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa under several conditions. 

 

The decision came ahead of the SLFP nominations committee meeting with the President scheduled to take place tonight.

 

Rajapaksa will not be given Prime Ministerial candidacy or the opportunity to spearhead the UPFA election campaign.  The campaign will be headed by President Maithripala Sirisena in his capacity as the UPFA Chairman. 

 

However,  highly placed party sources said the President had insisted that Rajapaksa should contest from the Hambanthota district.  There is still no final agreement over the district from which the former President would contest.

 

Meanwhile, President Sirisena had opposed giving nominations to nearly 20 former MPs of the UPFA. Final decisions over such contentious matter would be arrived at the meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and  UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha, party sources said.

 

The President held a meeting for UPFA party leaders this morning where they discussed allocation of quotas for stakeholders of the UPFA where nominations are concerned. Speaking Asian Mirror, a UPFA party leader said there were no disagreements between UPFA stakeholders over the matter.