President Ranil Wickremesinghe, if stood for re-election in the presidential poll due later in the year, may have a face-up with his cabinet colleague Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who is currently serving as the Minister of Justice.

Former president Maithripala Sirisena, the chairman of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), told reporters on Wednesday that Rajapakshe, 65, would be his party's candidate in the presidential election scheduled to be held before November 15 this year.

“He will be the most suitable candidate from SLFP”, Sirisena said.

Rajapakshe is a member of the now fragmented Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, the home for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A part of the SLPP is currently in alignment with 75-year-old Wickremesinghe while another section supports the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) -- a political alliance led by Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.

The SLPP Rajapaksa loyalists are unlikely to field a candidate as the party has been struggling since the 2022 mass protests. The demonstrators blamed the erstwhile powerful Rajapaksa family for the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis.

Wickremesinghe, who is yet to announce his candidacy, is banking on cross-party support for his re-election to implement an economic reform programme to pull the country out of bankruptcy.

The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake have already announced their candidature.

The SLFP of Sirisena has been in disarray since early April.

He was clamped by court order as the leader when he nominated Rajapakshe to be the acting chair of the party.

Even Rajapakshe has a court restraining order to function.

The two factions led by Sirisena and the former president Chandrika Kumaratunga are embroiled in a serious legal tangle for the control of the party.

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