Three councillors elected to the Colombo Municipal Council on the Joint Opposition ticket have declared themselves independent members, NewsFirst reported on Tuesday.
Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar confirmed that Mansil Mohamed, Indhika Sanjiva Liyanage and Sunanda Liyanapathirana would function as independent councillors of the local authority. NewsFirst did not report a stated reason for the defections.
The Joint Opposition is a grouping of opposition parties — including elements of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and other allied formations — that contested the 2025 local government elections together. The Colombo Municipal Council has been under the administration of National People’s Power-aligned Mayor Balthazaar since the council was constituted last year.
The break of three members from the Joint Opposition bench is the first publicly reported intra-opposition fracture at the country’s largest local authority since the council took office. Wider opposition cohesion has been strained on multiple fronts in recent months, with opposition leaders pursuing parallel parliamentary inquiry tracks on bribery and treasury matters, and the Joint Opposition pressing its own line at the Matara rally.
The party affiliations the three councillors will retain in practice, and whether they continue to vote with the opposition bloc on council business, were not specified in the report. NewsFirst said it sourced the announcement directly from the Mayor.
Source: NewsFirst.
