Majority of SLPP members support RW - Premitha Bandara

COLOMBO (News1st); State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon says majority of members of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna support President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Speaking during a media briefing in Colombo today State Minister Tennakoon said the SLPP Politburo met yesterday and decided to field a party candidate, a decision he described as predictable and pre-determined. 

Tennakoon criticized the meeting as a formality, lacking genuine democratic decision-making within the SLPP. He revealed that before the meeting, he and around 30 MPs, including Cabinet and State Ministers, discussed the potential repercussions of fielding a SLPP candidate with former President and party leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, who initially agreed with their concerns and indicated he would not support such a move.

Tennakoon also raised issues about the composition of the politburo meeting, noting that only a small fraction of the party's MPs, along with a few provincial councillors and local government heads, were present, questioning the legitimacy of the attendees. He compared the decision-making process to the flawed decision of May 9, 2022, to mobilize a crowd to Colombo, criticizing the lack of ground-level understanding and sensitivity.

The SLPP's recent stance against Ranil Wickremesinghe's policies, which they now claim do not align with their own, was also criticized by Tennakoon as a delayed realization. In response, the majority of SLPP MPs have planned to meet at the Presidential Secretariat, with Tennakoon’s group expressing their support for the President.