The Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s (SJB) May Day rally at the P.D. Sirisena Stadium in Maligawatta turned chaotic on Thursday, as supporters streamed out of the venue while party leader Sajith Premadasa was speaking and journalists were forcibly pushed back from the stage area.
Eyewitnesses and circulating social media footage showed sections of the stadium visibly emptying as Premadasa took to the podium, undermining what the party had billed as a show of worker solidarity. NewsFirst reported the rally drew scrutiny “not just for the exodus but for what journalists described as deliberate obstruction of press access.”
Daily Mirror said media personnel “were not allowed to engage in the usual coverage as they were chased away,” with photographers staging a walkout in protest. “The media were always allowed to stay at the front and cover all the rallies in the past but today the situation was different as the media were chased away towards the back,” the paper reported. Other May Day events held by political parties and trade unions across the country proceeded with normal media access.
The optics contrast sharply with the governing NPP’s flagship rally in Nuwara Eliya, one of 21 the party held islandwide. The SJB had earlier sought to share its Maligawatta stage with the UNP, an invitation Ranil Wickremesinghe’s party declined citing the Vesak Poya day. Premadasa used the platform to argue an SJB-UNP alliance had “effectively formed” ahead of provincial council elections.
Sources: NewsFirst; Daily Mirror.
