The Election Commission has told the rival factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party that it cannot currently treat the SLFP as a formally recognised political party, and that the party must apply afresh for recognition after meeting the registration criteria — among them holding a proper party election.
The Commission conveyed the position to the factions on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported, with Hiru News reporting the same instruction in near-identical terms: the SLFP “cannot at this time be considered an officially recognised political party,” and should submit a fresh application once the necessary criteria, including an internal office election, have been satisfied.
The party founded by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1951 governed Sri Lanka for much of the period since independence.
What happened on Friday
NewsFirst reported that the Election Commission summoned several of the party’s factions and questioned them about the dispute on Friday. Those who attended were Dayasiri Jayasekara, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Duminda Dissanayake.
The Commission said it had identified the SLFP as a party facing an internal dispute, and set out what that means in practice:
- A party in an internal dispute cannot submit nominations for an election.
- Where such a party wants to submit nominations, its representatives must appear before the Commission and reach agreement on resolving the dispute.
- If the dispute cannot be resolved, the party can lose the opportunity to submit nominations for that election.
The Commission said the same procedure will apply to the SLFP going forward.
Two accounts of the same decision, framed differently
The three filings describe one meeting but do not characterise its outcome identically, and the difference is worth keeping in view.
The Daily Mirror and Hiru both report a status finding — the party is not currently recognised and must reapply. NewsFirst reports a procedural consequence — the party has been identified as being in an internal dispute, which bars nominations until the dispute is settled. NewsFirst does not use the phrase “no longer recognised” at any point.
The two framings are compatible: a party without a valid office election has not met the conditions the Commission applies, and the nominations bar is what follows. But they are not the same claim, and no filing explains how the recognition finding and the dispute finding relate to each other formally.
One further hedge is being lost in the headlines. The Daily Mirror’s own headline says the SLFP is “no longer a recognised political party,” while the body of its report says the party “cannot currently be considered” one. Hiru’s Sinhala carries the same qualifier — මේ වන විට, “at this time.” The qualifier is in both bodies and in neither headline, and it matters, because the remedy the Commission set out is an application the party can still make.
Context
The SLFP has been split between competing factions for several years, and its leadership has been contested in both party forums and the courts. In October, an SLPP delegation met SLFP President Nimal Siripala de Silva at SLFP headquarters for talks on the two parties’ next steps; no alliance was announced. Both parties were reduced to a small presence in Parliament after the National People’s Power won the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Not reported
No filing names the Election Commission official who conveyed the decision, gives a deadline for the fresh application, or says which election the nominations warning refers to. None states whether the party’s existing registration has been formally cancelled, lapsed, or merely been treated as inoperative pending an office election. None reports a response from any of the four leaders who attended, or from the party as an institution, and none says what the Commission considers the dispute to be about or which faction it regards as having standing to apply.
