SJB's political debacles raise questions over future of leadership

THE main Opposition SJB’s inability to secure the post of Mayor of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is another in a growing list of political failures on the part of its leader Sajith Premadasa.

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It was a council the SJB could have won outright at the elections without going through a rigorous deal-making process, but Premadasa, who insiders allege acts on the whims of a handful of those in his inner circle, failed to read the mood of the voters and reach a consensus with other Opposition parties to secure the council prior to the polls.

Having failed at that, the SJB got into an alliance with its sworn political opponents including the UNP and the SLPP in the hope it would win the council, the most important among all local government bodies in the country. That too proved a failure when the NPP pushed for a secret vote and defeated the SJB candidate handpicked by Premadasa.