Pressure from government seniors to re-appoint Ratnasiri as Prime Minister

The comment made by Minister A.H. M. Fowzie at a public gathering that the most senior SLFP member Ratnasiri Wickremanyake should be re-appointed as the Prime Minister, has created a controversy among alliance leaders on the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next government, sources from the SLFP headquarters said.

Minister Fowzie believes that the only way to resolve the cold war between party seniors like Maithripala Sirisena, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Basil Rajapaksa over who becomes the next Prime Minister is to re-appoint Ratnasiri to the post. His stance is that the appointment of an individual who has not even held a ministerial post by sidelining party seniors could cause a rift in the SLFP.

  It is learnt that other senior SLFPers like John Seneviratne, Piyasena Gamage, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Berty Premalal Dissanayake and Maheepala Herath are also supportive of Fowzie’s stance.