SLPP-SLFP alliance undecided due to issue in the common symbol : President

COLOMBO (News 1st):- The Kurunegala District convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party was held in Hettipola today (September 29). The Kurunegala convention under the theme "Theeranaya Hari Athata" was held under the auspices of President Maithripala Sirisena. Addressing the people gathered, President Maithripala stated; "Today Mahinda Rajapaksa is the opposition leader not because of the Pohottuwa, he became the opposition leader because of the letter sent by the general secretary of the SLFP and the UPFA to the Speaker of Parliament stating that Mahinda Rajapaksa is a parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Today why are all of the parliamentarians from Pohottuwa who speak against us still in parliament? When I dissolved parliament and they obtained membership of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna the very next day, the speaker asked me if they are members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party? We saved their seat in parliament through a letter. Why am I saying this, it is not a secret that the Pohottuwa party has been conducting discussions with us for the past two months to form an alliance. Yesterday in the morning, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Basil Rajapaksa held discussions with me at the presidential secretariat on the background for forming this alliance. I told them the stance of our central working committee, I told them the stance of our parliamentary group, I told them about the stance of our Pradeshiya Saba members, I also told them about the stance of the village supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. I told them that we can support a national program that is formulated together, but we cannot vote for the Pohottuwa symbol." He further says - "I asked them to agree to a common symbol and we can unite, Why did I tell you everything regarding the way we helped them, saving their parliamentary seats, and appointing them as opposition leader and prime minister? After all of these things that we have done for them, the Pohottuwa must be flexible to a proposal made by us if we are to form an alliance. If they are not flexible what will happen to your future as party supporters. What will happen to the future of our 1300 Pradeshiya Sabha members? What will be the future of the policies and vision of the party? What is the future of the parliamentary group? So we need a flexible policy that will safeguard the identity and integrity of the party as well as the policy of the party and party supporters. if this happens we can unite" Also speaking at the event, the General Secretary of the SLFP, Dayasiri Jayasekara said; "The UNP is also calling us for discussions. We are holding discussions with the SLPP on the other side they are not showing any flexibility. We did not impose conditions, there was only one condition but even that is not a condition. We asked them for a common symbol for our SLFP supporters to vote for, but they did not agree to that. We still did not panic. We could have gone and done something else, we did not do that either. Why was that? because the country has asked for a force against this UNP government, we will strengthen that movement. That is what we want. Therefore we will not consider these personal issues. But we know that they will attack us. Knowing that we will strengthen the party and continue to move forward."