The five senior SLFP parliamentarians now threatened with expulsion from the party have denied receiving any formal notification of such punitive action while two of them would not even confirm that they have actually left the party and joined another.
Last week, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara told news media that five national list MPs were to be expelled from the party membership, but the MPs named are dismissing the threat.
The SLFP Parliamentarians in question are S.B. Dissanayake, Dilan Perera and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, who have pledged support to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and, Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa and A.H.M. Fowzie, who have pledged support to the United National Front (UNF).
S.B. Dissanayake told the Daily News that they could not be expelled from the party without sanction of the party’s Central Committee (CC). Dissanayaka pointed out that although the party’s General Secretary had told media that the five MPs would be expelled, he was aware that the CC has not come up with any such decision so far.
“The SLFP General Secretary has powers to suspend any member. But, only the Central Committee can decide on expelling a member. Therefore, we cannot agree with the General Secretary’s remarks,” he argued.
Dissanayake also denied Saturday’s media reports said that he would be taking legal action against his removal from SLFP membership.
UPFA National list MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhane told the Daily news that they cannot be expelled from the party without a proper disciplinary inquiry.
He said he had responded to the ‘show-cause’ letter served on him by the party recently but, no letter of suspension has been sent to him yet.
“First, they must conduct the disciplinary inquiry and based on the result of that we will go to the courts. However, we still did not receive any letter with regard to the suspension of our membership”, Abeywardhane said.
National list MP A.H.M. Fowzie, a party veteran who had joined the UNP-led United National Front, said that the SLFP has no right to suspend their membership without conducting a disciplinary inquiry.
“We have not received any letter from the party with regard to the suspension of our memberships. We will take action only after receiving it,” Fowzie added.
Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa, the other MP who has joined the UNF, refused to comment on the latest development saying that this was an internal matter of the party.
Meanwhile, when asked, MPs Dissanayake and Abeywardhane also refused to comment on whether or not they have obtained the SLPP membership.
Attempts by the Daily News to contact MP Dilan Perera failed.
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