Duminda Dissanayake and Wishwa Warnapala were appointed as the General Secretary of the SLFP and the acting General Secretary of the UPFA respectively and at the present, they have obtained a court order from the Colombo District court to function in their new posts without being obstructed by their predecessors.

The order will be in effect until the 28th of this month.

Court holidays will be observed until August 24 and this would make it exceedingly difficult for Susil Premajayantha or Anura Priyadarshana Yapa to state their case before August 28.

Also, the end of the elections on August 17 would be the start of a crucial period for party General Secretaries.

National List :

According to Amal Jayasinghe, the chief of the AFP bureau in Sri Lanka, a party General Secretary is tasked with informing the Elections secretariat of the MPs named to parliament through the party National List.

Therefore, this would give the President room to name the National List MPs according to his preference, he adds.

Also, the President would be able to control the conduct of the UPFA MPs elected to the next parliament, through the two new General Secretaries, he further adds.

It is the party General Secretary who coordinates with the Election commissioner over matters such as holding disciplinary inquiries against party MPs and ousting MPs from the party.

(BBC Sandeshaya)