Mounting internal pressure is threatening to shake the foundations of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), with ten senior Members of Parliament and several electoral organizers urging party leader Sajith Premadasa to initiate sweeping leadership reforms in the wake of six successive electoral defeats.
At a meeting held this week, the group conveyed to Premadasa their strong view that the party’s persistent losses spanning two presidential, three parliamentary, and one local government election cannot be laid solely at the feet of electoral organizers. They stressed the need for an immediate shake-up at the top tier of the party’s leadership.
The call for reform comes amid reports of internal moves to remove certain organizers in response to the SJB’s poor performance in recent elections.
However, the group warned that without meaningful leadership changes, the party was poised to suffer further losses in future polls.
Critics within the party also pointed to missed political opportunities during Sri Lanka’s political vacuum in 2022.
They told Premadasa that had he accepted the premiership following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he could have demonstrated national leadership and potentially altered public perception in his favour.
“Ranil Wickremesinghe, despite limited parliamentary support, went on to secure over two million votes at the last presidential election. That moment was ours to take, but it slipped through,” one SJB MP reportedly told Premadasa.
They further pointed out that the SJB’s failure to build a broader electoral alliancewith the United National Party (UNP) and other centrist forces cost the party a potential path to victory.
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