Actress Damitha Abeyratne has complained to the Ratnapura Returning Officer and the Elections Commission yesterday (11) regarding the sudden removal of her name from the Ratnapura district nomination list.
Abeyratne had arrived at the Ratnapura District Secretariat to hand over the nominations and she was disappointed after realising that her name has not been included in the nomination list of the Ratnapura District.
Her name had been removed from the nomination list due to the objection raised by other candidates and party stalwarts in the district.
District leader Hesha Withanage handed over the nomination list without her name to Ratnapura Returning Officer Wasantha Gunaratne.
Speaking to media after making a complaint to the Ratnapura Returning Officer, Abeyratne said that former Parliamentarian proposed her name as one of the candidates contesting the election from the district.
She regretted that her name has been removed at the last minute.
“I did not want to come to Rathnapura. He wanted me to contest from Ratnapura. He has misled the party leader too”, he said.
A tense situation prevailed after she realized that her name has been removed from the list at the last minute and she complained to the Ratnapura Returning Officer and the Elections Commission, citing that she had been treated unfairly.
Speaking to the media, Ratnapura SJB leader Hesha Withanage said that Abeyratne has given immense support to his party but her name had to be removed from the list to give room to the women’s participation from the district itself.
He said that the name of SJB Ratnapura district Local Government Members Association Secretary Ridma Dharmawardena was included in the list.
There are candidates in the district who know the suffering of the people of the district and there is no need to import from outside,” he said.
