By Maheesha Mudugamuwa The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) failed to reach an agreement on the Presidential candidate for the next election. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, SLPP Chairman Professor G.L. Peiris said that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Leader of their party would decide who the SLPP presidential candidate should be. “Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa will indicate who his candidate is, at the right time, but at the moment, that is not a priority,” Prof. Peiris noted. He said that the priority at the moment was the economic hardships suffered by the people, the fact that there was no government, and also the prevention of a new constitution. When asked about moves to form an alliance between the SLPP and SLFP, Prof. Peiris insisted that an agreement was not reached. Meanwhile, expressing their views on the speculations that President Maithripala Sirisena would be nominated as the next presidential candidate, several SLPP provincial council members insisted that the decision on the next presidential candidacy should be taken by the SLPP. SLPP Provincial Council Forum President Kanchana Jayaratne said the SLPP would only contest the upcoming provincial council elections under the symbol of the "flower bud" with the support of a broader alliance of political parties that support Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and his policies. However, newly-appointed SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara said that discussing the presidential candidacy matter at this point would be premature, as there was another eight months to take the decision. “We have to sit together with the current President and former President and all the coalition parties to discuss and decide who is going to be the next candidate,” MP Jayasekara noted. The SLFP General Secretary confirmed that the President had not decided whether he should be the next presidential candidate or not but the SLFP had proposed that its leader President Sirisena should contest at the upcoming presidential election. “We have not taken any firm decision yet. Therefore, we have to discuss who is going to be the fitting candidate and we have to get together and support this. If we fight over this candidacy there will be a huge problem among the parties,” Jayasekara stressed. Meanwhile, UPFA MP Namal Rajapaksa noted that the SLFP and SLPP would form a broad alliance and it would be led by the people. Referring to the presidential candidacy, MP Rajapaksa stressed that they would support the candidate proposed by the SLFP-SLPP alliance, whoever it is.