They are Siripala Amarasinghe, Piyasiri Wijenayake, Duminda Nagamuwa, Anuruddha Polgampola, Samansiri Herath and Aruna de Soysa. They had all handed in their nominations.
Siripala Amarasinghe, Piyasiri Wijenayake, Samansiri Herath and Anuruddha Polgampola will contest the presidency as independent candidates. Duminda Nagamuwa will contest under the Progressive Socialist Party and Aruna de Soysa will contest under the Democratic National Movement.
Siripala Amarasinghe, Piyasiri Wijenayake and Anuruddha Polgampola had served as JVP-MPs and later left the party.
Duminda Nagamuwa had contested the 2015 presidential election. He had left the JVP and joined the Progressive Socialist Party, while Samansiri Herath had functioned as a provincial councillor.
Aruna de Soysa was an active JVP member who had faced the 1988, 1999 terror period.
It is a special instance where these six former JVP members are contesting the presidential election together with the JVP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The JVP is fielding its own candidate after a lapse of many years.
