The party will give nominations only to those who are free of corruption in order to create a clean party, he said.

Meanwhile, minister S.B. Dissanayake has told ‘Divaina’ that Tamil and Muslim parties have asked the president not to give nominations to Rajapaksa.

In this situation, what Rajapaksa should do is to worship at religious places and collect some merit, he said.

Government politicians do not want to get Rajapaksa to join them for any reason, said Dissanayake.

However, SLFP media spokesman Dilan Perera said the party’s central committee would decide whether to give nominations to Rajapaksa.

President Sirisena is just one member of the SLFP CC, and he will not oppose if a resolution adopted with majority consent to field Rajapaksa at the election, he said.

Perera said they valued president Sirisena’s having allowed the CC to take decisions freely, which was not the case when Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa were in power.