Following the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Constitution being amended to empower its Chairman to remove party officers from their respective positions at their discretion, amidst opposition from several senior SLFP members including Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera, divisions have arisen within the SLFP, The Morning learnt.
Last week, several amendments were implemented to the Constitution of the SLFP, including a clause empowering the party’s chairman to remove any officer or member at their discretion. Despite the opposition of several members of the SLFP’s parliamentary group such as de Silva, Amaraweera, and MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, the amendments were passed in the party’s Central Committee and its All-Ceylon Committee.
Speaking to The Morning, sources within the SLFP said that following the constitutional amendment, there has been a division into two groups in the party. According to sources, SLFP Chairman, former President, and incumbent MP Maithripala Sirisena, SLFP General Secretary and MP Dayasiri Jayasekara, and SLFP Senior Vice President Rohana Luxman Piyadasa are in one group, while the other includes de Silva, Amaraweera, Dassanayake, and some other MPs.
The sources further stated that due to the alleged disobedience of several senior politicians representing the SLFP, the Sirisena-led group is engaged in an effort to remove them from the positions they hold in the party, and to appoint people friendly to them to those positions. Apart from that, the sources also stated that another senior official of the party is attempting to become the SLFP Chairman, thereby paving the way to fulfil his future political dreams.
Meanwhile, an official of the SLFP, when contacted by The Morning, said that de Silva and Amaraweera, who accepted ministerial positions in the current Government despite the SLFP’s decision to the contrary, have been removed from all the positions they held in the party. Noting that the process of revoking their party membership is currently underway, he said that strict measures will be taken against anyone who acts against the party’s decisions in the future.
The SLFP is among the prominent political parties in Sri Lanka and was founded by slain Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951. Since then, it was one of the two largest political parties in the country until the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) was formed in 2018. The SLFP first came to power in 1956, and since then has been the predominant party in Government on a number of occasions. Both in the Presidential Election in 2019 and the General Election in 2020, the SLFP supported the SLPP and the MPs representing the SLFP recently left the SLPP governing alliance by becoming “Independent” Opposition MPs in Parliament.