President Maithripala Sirisena is scheduled to announce the SLFP decision to join the SLPP either today or tomorrow (08), according to SLFP internal sources.
Talks in this regard were held yesterday between the two parties as well as the SLFP leaders.
The SLFP Central Working Committee had entrusted the final decision on tem joining with the SLPP to the President.
Joining the coalition without conditions
Meanwhile, the Aruna newspaper reported that the SLFP had unanimously taken the decision to support the SLPP without any conditions.
It is also reported that based on the final decision taken by President Sirisena, the agreement supporting SLPP presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is expected to be signed prior to October 09th.
The agreement between the SLFP and the SLPP is scheduled to be signed on October 09that the Anuradhapura Salgadu Stadium.
The SLPP inaugural presidential election rally is scheduled to take place at the same venue thereafter.
The views and decisions of the SLFP provincial representatives were discussed at the Central Working Committee meeting last Saturday.
However, although the president was scheduled to announce his decision at a special media briefing yesterday (06), it was later postponed.
Previously, the SLFP had notified the Elections Commission that they would be fielding a candidate for the presidential election.
However, they had not done so until the closing of payment of deposits which ended yesterday (06).
Will the SLFP split?
However, the Weekend Deshaya newspaper had reported that in the event then SLFP and SLPP decides to join up, 11 of the SLFP members would join the coalition while 6 others would join the UNF.
It is reported that some of the SLFP members would directly join the main party within the UNF while others would join the UNF.
Currently, there are 17 MPs who are with the President and the SLFP.
(Mirror)