Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was not present at the 64th anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party held at Kaduruwela, Polonnaruwa, this afternoon.

Speaking at the event, SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake said that Kumaratunga could not attend because she was out of the country.

Meanwhile, it was reported that she will be attending an international summit in India which is to begin tomorrow. Indian media reported that Kumaratunga is likely to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while she is in that country.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa did take part in the event and was seen seated next to President Maithripala Sirisena.

The two former Presidents, Kumaratunga and Rajapaksa, have not been seen on the same political stage in a decade.

Former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the Sri Lanka Freedom Party 64th anniversary celebrations at Polonnaruwa, Rajapaksa's Media Coordinator Rohan Welivita told Asian Mirror.

The anniversary celebrations are held this afternoon at the Rajarata Navodya Grounds in Kaduruwela, Polonnaruwa, under the patronage of SLFP Chairman President Maithripala Sirisena.

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga and other senior SLFP members are expected to take part in the event.

Rajapaksa, who is a Senior Adviser of the SLFP, did not take part in the SLFP May Day rally this year.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party celebrates its 64th anniversary today.

The anniversary celebration will be held at the Rajarata Navodya Grounds at Kaduruwela, Polonnaruwa, under the patronage of SLFP Chairman, President Maithripala Sirisena.

The SLFP was founded on September 2, 1951, by SWRD Bandaranaike, who left the UNP government to sit in the opposition. SLFP entered electoral politics the following year, winning 9 seats in parliament. Four years later it was the main constituent of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna alliance which swept into power.

Following the assassination of Prime Minister Bandaranaike in September 1959, the SLFP passed an uncertain period. It ended when the widow of the slain Prime Minister led the party to victory in the July 1960 election. Sirimavo R.D. Bandaranaike became the first female Prime Minister of the world.

The SLFP governed the country until 1965 and once again as part of the United Front from 1970 to 1977. Following the phenomenal victory of the UNP in the 1977 General Election, the SLFP once again entered a period of factionalism. It ended with the formation of the People's Alliance, a five member alliance of center-left parties, in 1993.

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was elected Executive President of Sri Lanka in 1994. The SLFP has held the executive presidency ever since her election.

The new Cabinet of Ministers will be sworn-in on Friday at 11am, political reports said.

The Cabinet is expected to have 45 members, out of which the UNP is expected to receive 33 ministerial portfolios. The SLFP will receive 12 ministries.

Meanwhile, discussions are still underway on the State and Deputy Ministerial portfolios.

However, the parliament has to give its approval to the size of the Cabinet since it is a case of forming a national government. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution restricted the number of Cabinet Ministries to 30. However, the parliament can decide on a number of ministries if a national government is being formed.

Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's allies are planning to form a new opposition alliance, breaking away from President Maithripala Sirisena's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, senior leftist leaders said on Saturday.

"We are looking to form a new political front. We are having talks with different groups," Tissa Vitharana of the Trotskyist Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP) said. Vitharana was a senior minister under Rajapaksa in his near decade old regime which ended in January.

"We have to form a new front, we are against this national government arrangement," Vasudeva Nanayakkara of another left party said. With the August 17 parliamentary election results and Sirisena's decision to form a coalition government of national unity between the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) and Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the old left have felt overlooked and ignored by Sirisena.

The old left parties have been part of the UPFA since its formation in 2004 as an anti UNP political front. The coalition ruled the country between 2004 and early this year. Vitharana and Dinesh Gunawardena, the leaders of the nationalist Mahajana Eksath Permauna (MEP) have accused Sirisena of breaking the UPFA coalition. 

(PTI)

Sri Lanka’s new government has further delayed formation of the Cabinet beyond the already agreed deadline of September 2.

The election was held nearly two weeks ago in which the United National Party (UNP) failed to win the absolute majority of 113 seats in 225-member assembly.

The UNP and the Opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party decided to form a national unity government following which there were serious negotiations and disagreements over the sharing of key portfolios.

Duminda Disssanayake, the SLFP acting general secretary, said the new Cabinet was most likely to be inducted on September 4. He said the SLFP’s 64th convention would be held on September 2 in Polonnaruwa and said they had invited all party officials, including President Maithripala Sirisena who is the party chairman, to attend the event.

Sirisena pledged to form a national government with his members providing the majority for the national unity government will be in office for a minimum period of two years. However, some members of the SLFP who are followers of the former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa have announced that they would not join the national government but would work as the main Opposition.

President Sirisena has allowed the MPs to act according to their wishes. Sirisena on Monday appointed three members of the Cabinet, including the foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera. They were appointed to host a visit by a group of top US state department officials.

(PTI)

Seven months after he was made de jure Chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the opposition United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena  became its de facto head on Friday.

The group headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reduced to a rump when the SLFP Central Committee unanimously decided to give Sirisena full authority to decide on the nature of the party’s participation in the National Government; who all will take ministerial portfolios and who will be the Leader of the Opposition.

In deference to Sirisena‘s wish, the Central Committee warned SLFP MPs that anyone defying its diktat will be liable to disciplinary action.

It is expected that at least 70 of the 80 SLFP MPs in the 95 member UPFA group in parliament will fall in line. But what Rajapaksa, who is an SLFP man and MP from Kurunegala District, will do, is yet to be seen. Since his die hard supporters, many of whom  represent small parties in the UPFA, have decided to sit in the opposition, Rajapaksa might cast his lot with them.  

Meanwhile, to smoothen ruffled feathers and get former Rajapaksa loyalists on board, the Sirisena group withdrew court cases against the two sacked General Secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha respectively.

Their places had already been given to Sirisena loyalists, Duminda Dissanayake ( SLFP) and Dr.Vishwa Warnapala (UPFA), but both Yapa and Premajayantha are to be made cabinet ministers in the National Government to be formed  with the United National Front for Good governance (UNFG) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

(The New Indian Express)

Kotikawatte-Mulleriyawa Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Prasanna Solangaarachchi said that he will not be contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections.

Making a special statement yesterday, he said that the elections are likely to take place in late February or early March.

Solangaarachchi adviced the Pradeshiya Sabha members to be prepared for the election.

Prasanna Solangaarachchi was recently appointed as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Avissawella Chief Organizer by President Maithripala Sirisena.

The petition filed against former UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha and former SLFP General Secretary Anura Priyadarshana Yapa were dismissed today by Colombo District Court Judge Harsha Setunge.

The Judge dismissed the petition considering requests made by the plaintiffs Duminda Dissanayake and Prof. Vishwa Warnapala.

The plaintiffs informed the District Court that they were not obstructed in their duties as the General Secretaries of the UPFA and the SLFP. They had earlier obtained an injunction order against Premajayantha and Yapa preventing them functioning as UPFA and SLFP General Secretaries.

The plaintiffs also informed the court that Premajayantha has already tendered his resignation as UPFA General Secretary. A copy of the letter of resignation was submitted as proof.