The 52-member Central Committee of the LSSP meets today (Sunday) to discuss the resignation of its long-serving General Secretary Batty Weerakoon, among the last of the party’s old guard, as well as the acceptance of cabinet office by Prof. Tissa Vitharane.

Weerakoon said that he will be present at today’s meeting. "I have to decide whether I can remain in the LSSP," he said. "I don’t want to split the party."

Prof. Tissa Vitharane’s acceptance of cabinet office in the UPFA government has created problems for sections of the LSSP which did not agree to enter the Alliance but instead work within the PA on a progressive platform to offer an alternative to the UNP.

While Weerakoon freely and willingly conceded his national list entitlement to parliament to Vitharane, he said that the LSSP was confronted with the need to preserve its identity and not enter into formations that would endanger it.

These matters had been discussed at the time preparations were afoot for the provincial council elections and an arrangement for the LSSP to have a share of the SLFP slots agreed between the JVP and SLFP under arrangements between those two parties.

The premature dissolution of parliament and national elections overtook these developments and Weerakoon expressed his desire to resign his position of general secretary of the LSSP as he did not wish to appear on platforms from which the JVP stance on the national question would be expressed.

He was however persuaded to remain until the election was over. Once it was, before the results were announced ("I knew what the result was going to be") he tried to tender his resignation but was asked to hold his horses until these matters could be discussed.

Thereafter Vitharane informed the party of the cabinet offer which Weerakoon said was "going even further" and he submitted his resignation.

"I had a precedent. In 1964 when the LSSP was joining an SLFP government, some in our party like Colvin, Leslie and Bernard while not opposing it, did not favour an arrangement that did not include the CP. Leslie said at the time that he could not remain general secretary and resigned," Weerakoon said.