Rajapaksa urges Lanka prez to fire unity govt

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged his successor and party rival Maithripala Sirisena to end the current government of national unity with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP, to pave the way for reunification of their respective SLFP factions.
"As a pre-condition he must end his government with the United National Party (UNP)," Rajapaksa said last night, referring to reunification talks between his faction and that of Sirisena in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Rajapaksa handed Sirisena the SLFP leadership after he was defeated by his rival in the presidential election of January 2015.
Sirisena became the UNP-backed common opposition challenger to Rajapaksa, having quit his position as health minister in the Rajapaksa Cabinet.

Since Sirisena became president, the Rajapaksa camp has formed its own party to challenge Sirisena.
However, Sirisena wants to unify the SLFP to face the upcoming local council elections.

Sirisena has been postponing local elections since 2015 and the Rajapaksa camp alleges that it was his fear of losing which drives Sirisena to keep postponing the polls.
"We have a committee of three talking to SLFP. We want to see if our conditions will be met," Rajapaksa stressed.
The SLFP-UNP understanding on the unity government is due to end by the end of the year.
The UNP however is intent on continuing the current government with or without the SLFP until the end of its term in 2020, the UNP sources said.