SLPP says Basil Rajapaksa fit to lead Sri Lanka

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By Editor_1
Basil Rajapaksa, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Colombo April 10, 2012. Rajapaksa quit Parliament on June 9, 2022, denying responsibility for an economic crisis that has caused severe hardship in the country-Dinuka Liyanawatte/ REUTERS
By Himal Kotelawala

COLOMBO – The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)’s national organizer Basil Rajapaksa may end up being its presidential candidate in a future election, a senior spokesman for the party said amid speculation that the party is divided on its support for President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the next presidential polls.

SLPP general secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam told reporters on Tuesday (11) that while it respects Wickremesinghe for doing his part in “protecting the country and democracy” from an emerging threat of “terrorism”, party leader Mahinda Rajapaksa still commands the loyalty of SLPP supporters as the leader who won Sri Lanka’s three-decade war with the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was renowned for finishing the war and not for working towards the division of the country, said Kariyawasam in what sounded like a thinly veiled reference to allegations his camp had once made at the Wickreemsinghe-led United National Party (UNP)’s efforts at peace talks with the Tigers.

The MP added that Wickremesinghe had also failed to win a popular mandate at past presidential elections, a familiar refrain from the opposition.

Kariyawasam made these comments in response to questions raised by journalists about whom the SLPP might support at the next presidential election. When asked if the party had a suitable candidate that it could field in place of Wickremesinghe, Kariyawasam answered emphatically in the affirmative and, pressed by the journalist if it would be Basil Rajapaksa, he said: “If you’re asking me about Basil Rajapaksa, he is a person suitable to lead this country.”

“So you’re saying the next presidential candidate could be Basil Rajapaksa?”

“Yes, it could be him too,” responded Kariyawasam.

The MP is widely considered a staunch ally of the former finance minister.

He added, however, that any talk of a presidential election that’s not due for another one and a half years was futile and that Sri Lanka’s repeatedly delayed local government elections should instead be the focus.

Asked by another journalist on a remark attributed to Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara that the SLPP would back Wickremesinghe at the November 2024 presidential polls, Kariyawasam said the minister had only said that the party could support him and not that it definitely would.

SLPP national organizer Basil Rajapaksa, who was Sri Lanka’s finance minister in the run-up to its worst currency crisis in decades, was forced to step down from the portfolio after a popular wave of protests demanded his resignation along with that of his brother and former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has claimed that the SLPP is split over its continued support for Wickremesinghe. SJB MP Nalin Bandara told reporters on Monday (10) that a section of the SLPP has already decided to back Wickremesinghe at a future presidential election while another faction is still loyal to the Rajapaksa family that controls the party.

Bandara’s remark comes amidst intense speculation of an imminent split in his own party, the SJB, which according to some media reports is on the verge of seeing some notable defections to the government to support Wickremesinghe’s International Monetary Fund (IMF)-backed reform agenda.

-economynext.com

Editor_1
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