Patali parts ways with SJB, won’t contest General Election

United Republic Front Leader and former MP Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday declared that the MoU between the United Republic Front and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has been unilaterally violated by the SJB. Hence, the members of his party will not contest in the upcoming General Election either in alliance with Samagi Jana Sandhanaya or with another party or alone.

He told a press conference held at the United Republic Front headquarters yesterday that his party worked with the expectation of contesting in many districts from the Samagi Jana Sandhanaya for the General Election based on the MoU between the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and United Republic Front in August. According to that agreement, we had planned to field candidates in eleven districts from our party.But when we looked at the nomination process in the last few days, we realised that the MoU has been violated in a very serious way that we cannot justify at all.

So,we thought that we would withdraw from the alliance ahead of the upcoming Parliamentary elections. But, we do not intend to antagonise the SJB in any way or to contest the General Election together with other parties. In the future, we will discuss this with all the members of our party and other organisations and decide the next steps. However, we are refraining from fielding candidates in this General Election. We have already informed the leaders of Samagi Jana Balawegaya in this regard in writing.

“The fate of this country in the future will be decided to some extent by this election. Our belief is that the Executive should not be under the control of a single person, but the message is that the country needs a powerful Parliament that is democratic. Therefore, the people of our country should be mindful of it and use their vote in upcoming elections,”he said.

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