President Maithripala Sirisena and other seniors of the SLFP maintain a stoic silence over the candidacy of Mangalika Saruwa Liyanage contesting for the Akuressa Pradehsiya Sabha on the SLFP ticket. 

Mangalika is the wife of Saruwa Liyanage Sunil, the former Chairman of Akuressa PS, who allegedly threw a party to celebrate raping 100 virgins, a few years ago. 

He is currently undergoing a court case in connection with a child abuse. Despite allegations, Sunil received the most number of preferential votes for Akuressa at the last Local Government election. 

It is abundantly clear that the SLFP is attempting to tap into the support base of Saruwa Sunil by fielding his wife as a candidate. 

The move had come under severe criticism on social media platforms as many found it a 'disgusting' tactic.

Saruwa Sunil's wife has now launched her election campaign using photographs of her husband and State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena. 

Mangalika's candidacy is in sharp contrast to the SLFP's claims that it has fielded candidates with clean track records to contest on the party ticket at the Local Government election.