Seventeen parties join SLPP – led alliance

Seventeen political parties have come together to form a broad alliance anchored by the Sri Lanka Podujana Party to work together for the current Presidential Elections and all future polls, a press release issued by the SLPP Media office stated.

Called the Sri Lanka Nidahas Podujana Peramuna the alliance will back Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the upcoming Presidential election and a Mahinda Rajapaksa Premiership in Parliamentary General Elections due next year.

The two biggest parties in the alliance are the SLPP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The others range from Douglas Devananda’s ex-militants in the Eelam People’s Democratic Party to the Sinhala Chauvinist Athureliye Rathana Thero to Dew Gunesekara’s Communist Party of Sri Lanka.

The Alliance Presidential Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the main speaker at the event. It was attended by Members of Parliament from the SLPP, SLFP and various alliance partners.