There is a strong possibility for the two main parties to form a broad coalition and field President Maithripala Sirisena as a candidate for the 2020 Presidential election too, Southern Province Chief Minister Shan Wijayalal de Silva said.
He made this comment in response to several questions raised by journalists when he arrived in Ambalangoda to attend the Ambalangoda Regional Co-ordinating meeting held on May 14.
He said President Maithripala Sirisena was the undisputed leader acceptable to all communities. Both the SLFP and the country as a whole had received a rejuvenation with the President’s announcement that he had no desire to go on retirement in 2020.
The Chief Minister said the Joint Opposition which considered the SLFP coalition with the UNP as a sinful act had strangely coalesced with the UNP to set up administration in several local councils.
The SLFP was a party set up by the late Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike at a very auspicious time and no one would be able to destroy it as it would last for ever, he said.
Temporary electoral setbacks were a natural phenomenon experienced by any political party. But public opinion in Sri Lanka was liable to change at various times. Some people who voted against Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015 voted for his party in 2018. As such, no one could predict that the SLPP would secure the same number of votes at a future election.
At the recently concluded local elections, the SLPP received only 40 percent of the total votes. This meant that 60 percent of votes had been cast against it, he pointed out.
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