ECONOMYNEXT – Majority members of ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is backing current President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the upcoming presidential poll, State Urban Development and Housing Minister Arundika Fernando said.
Analysts expect an imminent split in the SLPP if its leaders do not support Wickremesinghe after his success in the economic recovery with IMF-led reforms following an unprecedented economic crisis.
Most SLPP members voted in Wickremesinghe as the president through a parliament vote after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in the face of mass protests and resigned.
Wickremesinghe later appointed most SLPP legislators into his cabinet and some others as state ministers to run the bankrupt nation.
Sri Lanka reached a deal with bilateral agreement last week while it has also agreed on a settlement for sovereign bond holders, which has to be endorsed by the IMF and the Official Credit Committee (OCC).
The government expects to declare the country’s recovery from bankruptcy soon.
President Wickremesinghe’s leadership has helped SLPP MPs to visit their constituency after hiding in fear following the May 2022 attacks over most legislators’ properties and murder of an MP, some SLPP members have said.
“He has proven and taken the country to a certain level from where it was,” State Minister Fernando told reporters at a media briefing at Wickremesinghe’s Presidential Campaign office in capital Colombo.
“Given the current crisis, we all including capitalists and socialists have to get united and march forward. What matters for us is not his personal or past policies, but the way now he works and consensus among us.”
Fernando’s statement comes when SLPP’s national organizer Namal Rajapaksa and its Secretary have stated contradictory statements.
Namal Rajapaksa, who has been aspiring to succeed his father Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead the SLPP has said some actions taken by President Wickremesinghe do not align with SLPP policies and the party disagrees with some of his policies.
Such policies include privatizing of state entities.
SLPP General Secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam said this week that the party will consider granting the Presidential candidacy to Wickremesinghe if he takes party membership.
“As SLPP, various people can say various opinions,” Fernando said.
“Our expectation is gather all the political forces who have clarity on this president and back him at the presidency,” he said adding that majority of the party members see him as the best candidate for the moment.
Fernando said opinion of the majority SLPP MPs is to get support of all the party members plus an endorsement from former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and get the maximum support of other political parties to back Wickremesinghe.
President Wickremesinghe has yet to officially declare his candidature for the presidential poll which is likely to be scheduled between September 17 and October 16 and is the leader of center-right United National Party (UNP) which backs liberal policies. The SLPP is a nationalistic and left-minded party.
“We know that Ranil Wickremesinghe is a representative and leader of a party that is for capitalism. We know the UNP is such kind of a party. But from there, they have come to a flexible point,” Fernando said.
“We (SLPP) also have come to a flexible point. The whole country is not in a position to go with socialism policies.” (Colombo/July 04/2024)