Parliament polls delay: President finds unlikely ally in one-time adversary
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s controversial announcement that he has no plans to dissolve Parliament anytime soon has found an unlikely champion in former president and Wickremesinghe’s one-time adversary Maithiripala Sirisena.
Speaking at an event on Friday (25), Sirisena said delaying the election by two years will give his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) some much needed time to regroup and organize.
The former head of state made the remark with what appeared to be a straight face, though it is possible he was speaking with his tongue at least partially lodged in his cheek.
“The president told Parliament recently that Parliament won’t be dissolved till its term has ended. That is good for small parties like ours. It will allow us to organize this party well,” said Sirisena at the SLFP event held in Colombo.
“It will take over two years for a parliamentary election to come. So I, too, like Mr Wickremesinghe’s statement because, though we may have political differences, it has given us the time to strengthen our party,” he said.
The once mighty SLFP, which produced three executive presidents, has been in tatters since the mass exodus of its membership to the newly formed Rajapaksa-juggernaut, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), in the run-up to the 2018 local government elections and the 2020 parliamentary polls. The SLPP, incidentally, now finds itself splintered after a series of protests that unseated its own president in July 2022, with each faction battling its own identity crisis.
-economynext.com
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