SLFP Snubs Also Call For ‘Royalist’ As Opposition Leader

Sri Lanka Freedom Party snubs today made a call for the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe‘s Royal College classmate Dinesh Gunawardena as the opposition leader.

Dinesh Gunawardena is a classmate of Wickremesinghe at Royal College and recently participated at a ceremony held to pay tribute to the new Prime Minister and other Royalist Ministers at Royal College.

Speaking at the rally in Ratnapura held to call for the nomination of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Ministerial candidate, many speakers called for the appointment of MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena as the opposition leader.

Earlier, Vasudeva Nanayakkara an ally of Mahinda Rajapaksa said that 50 parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party had signed a petition calling for the appointment of Gunawardena as the leader of the opposition.

The current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been accused of filling the cabinet with old boys of Royal College.

The Colombo Telegraph earlier provided a list of key cabinet portfolios which have been designated to Royalists, including all portfolios related to finance.

Dinesh Gunawardena is a classmate of Wickremesinghe at Royal College and recently participated at a ceremony held to pay tribute to the new Prime Minister and other Royalist Ministers at Royal College.

Earlier, speaking in Parliament Wimal Weerawansa said that the mandate given to President Maithripala Sirisena had been ‘hijacked’.

“The country voted for a President, and they hijacked it and appointed a Prime Minister and then they have now got there own opposition leader. What kind of mockery of the parliamentary system is this” he asked.

The new appointed Ministers also include Royalists, including Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Dilan Perera.