Former Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna organiser for Nawalapitiya K.L.A. Gunasinghe and several local constituency representatives have joined the Sarvajana Balaya alliance.
The group met Sarvajana Balaya National Organiser and former MP Dilum Amunugama at a private venue in Nawalapitiya on Sunday (9). Gunasinghe said afterwards that he and the other representatives had formally decided to join the alliance and work with the party.
Amunugama on the prison clashes
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Amunugama rejected government suggestions that the opposition was involved in the violence inside prisons, saying that if the government was claiming the opposition was directly behind clashes in prisons, then there would be no need for a government at all.
Prison unrest has dominated the political exchange for weeks. The Human Rights Commission has summoned institutional heads over the disturbances, and the government has tightened security across all 33 prisons.
Criticism of the judges’ gazette
Amunugama also described the issuing of a gazette notification seeking to extend the retirement age of judges, in the face of opposition from the Chief Prelates, as a clear indication of what he called the government’s authoritarian tendencies.
The Mahanayake theras confirmed last week that they had written to the President on the issue, and the measure has drawn objections across the opposition.
He further claimed that while other political parties had declined from previously high levels of voter support, Sarvajana Balaya had built a base after starting from virtually nothing, and had continued to expand it.
Sources: Ada Derana.
