SLPP renews call for early general election after UNP’s poor May Day show

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has resumed ratcheting up pressure on President Ranil Wickremesinghe to call early parliamentary polls.

Political sources say the SLPP had made its move in the wake of the UNP’s failure to engineer a sizeable section of the breakaway Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentary group to join President Wickremesinghe on the UNP’s May Day stage.

The UNP refrained from making an official announcement regarding Wickremesinghe’s candidature at the forthcoming presidential poll as its plan went awry.

Responding to The Island query, sources said that several SJB MPs, including two former Ministers who had been willing to switch sides on May Day, had declined to do so at the last moment.

Basil Rajapaksa, on behalf of the SLPP, has again urged President Wickremesinghe to advance parliamentary polls ahead of the presidential polls scheduled for later this year. They met at the President’s official residence at Malalasekera Mawatha on Saturday (04). There had been four previous meetings between them since Basil Rajapaksa returned from the US a couple of months ago. The two parties are yet to reach a consensus on this matter.

In terms of the Constitution, the presidential election will have to be held in Sept/Oct this year. (SF)