The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has appointed Habeeb Rifan, a lawyer from Oddamavadi in Batticaloa, to its National List seat in Parliament for a term of one year.
The party has formally notified the Election Commission of the decision by letter, and the relevant gazette notification is expected in due course, Hiru News reported on Monday.
The rotation, and who it moved away from
Party secretary Nizam Kariapper said the selection follows the SLMC’s principle of rotation, with this turn moving out of the Ampara District, which held the seat in the previous rotation, according to the Daily Mirror.
Two further factors weighed with the party leadership, Kariapper said in a post on X: Rifan’s willingness to contest the recent Local Government Elections at the party’s request, and the absence of parliamentary representation for the Kalkudah Electorate.
What a one-year term means in practice
The fixed term is the notable feature. A National List seat is allocated to a party rather than won in a constituency, which leaves the party free to set its own tenure and rotate the holder — and the SLMC is doing so explicitly, by district.
That gives the seat a different function from an ordinary electorate seat. Rather than representing one area for a full parliamentary term, it is being used to cycle representation across districts the party holds no seat in, with Kalkudah’s lack of an MP given as the reason this turn lands in Batticaloa.
Neither report gave the date the term begins, who held the seat before Rifan, or whether the rotation order beyond this term has been fixed.
A note on the spelling
The two outlets render the name differently: the Daily Mirror has Habeeb Rifan, Hiru News has Habeeb Rifaan. Both refer to the same appointment. The gazette, when it is published, will settle it.
