Leftist Parties Divided Over Which Candidate To Support At Upcoming Presidential Elections

October 29, 2014

Leftist parties in Sri Lanka have divided over which candidate to support at the upcoming Presidential elections, with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) passing a motion to support Mahinda Rajapaksa while the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) has announced that a decision has not yet been made on which candidate they would support.

The motion to support Mahinda Rajapaksa at the upcoming Presidential election had been proposed abruptly without any notice of a resolution during a meeting held to consider some documents submitted to the Central Committee. Although senior members such as Lal Wijenayake, Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne PC, Prof.  Vijaya Kumar, S Ramanathan, Wimal Rodrigo, Keerthi Kariyawasam  and Chameera Perera protested against the motion, it had been passed with 25 members voting in favour of it.

The protesting members have however informed that the decision is rejected by them and that they will defy it and act independently to support a candidate who will stand for abolition of the executive presidential system.

Meanwhile in a media statement, a group of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) politbureau members have announced that they have not made a decision to support UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe or any other common candidate who will be fielded at the upcoming presidential elections.

They have noted that despite NSSP General Secretary Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne announcing that they would critically support Ranil Wickremesinghe, no such decision has been made and that it is only his personal view. In their statement, it has also been announced that an agreement has been made with the leftist parties to field a common candidate who would represent leftist ideologies.