COLOMBO: President Maithripala Sirisena moved on Friday to purge the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and its main constituent, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), of loyalists of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a day after having sent a strongly worded letter to Mr Rajapaksa refusing to appoint him prime minister even if the UPFA won the August 17 parliamentary polls.

The removal of loyalists from the SLFP came after the former president in his reply to President Sirisena’s letter, asked him to “respect the verdict of the people and make him prime minister if the UPFA won the parliamentary elections”.

Acting in his capacity as Chairman of the SLFP and UPFA, Mr Sirisena cancelled the party membership of Anura Priyadharshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha and removed them from the post of general secretary of the SLFP and the UPFA respectively. He appointed Duminda Dissanayake as acting general secretary of SLFP and Prof. Wishwa Warnapala as acting general secretary of the UPFA.

Mr Rajapaksa said in his letter that he had respected the verdict of the people in the January 8 presidential election and stepped down as president, adding that he re-entered the political arena on strong demands made by the people who were unhappy with the new regime.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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