SLFP to announce Presidential nominee today

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party will officially announce its Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates at 10 am today.

The decision to announce the Party nominees for the twin positions was taken by the Presidential Steering Committee which met late Tuesday night.

The meeting presided over by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga commenced at 7.45 p.m. and extended beyond midnight.

The President addressing the meeting proposed that the Presidential nominee of the party should be announced without delay.

The Committee unanimously endorsed this view after which the President proposed that the SLFP Central Committee be summoned. Accordingly, the Party Central Committee will gather at 10 a.m. at President's House today where the main meeting will take place.

At this meeting, all decisions taken at the recent Presidential Steering Committee meeting would be brought to the notice of the membership after which the President will make the statement proposing the name of the next Presidential candidate. The Steering Committee comprises 12 senior members of the SLFP and Ministers.

President Kumaratunga is the Committee's Chairperson. The rest of the Committee comprises, SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena, Ministers Anura Bandaranaike, Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, D.M. Jayaratne, Mangala Samaraweera, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Susil Premajayantha and Lakshman Kadirgamar, SLFP National Organiser Anuruddha Ratwatte and Western Province Governor Alavi Mowlana.

The Convenor of the Committee is Executive Director, SLFP Headquarters, Dr. Cecil Bandara Senaratne.