He said that  SLFPers should use their vote wisely at the November 16 Presidential Election, to ensure that there would be no erosion of the SLFP’s vote base and the party retained its historic identity created by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

"I will not tell others whom  they should vote for on November 16", Welgama noted adding that he would cast his vote for  a candidate other than the one put forward by the Podujana Peramuna.

Welgama, identifying himself as  the most senior SLFPer  next to SLFP Patron and former  President Chandrika Kumaratunga, said that he  would not permit Johnny-Come-Latelys to decimate his party.

Advising  members of the  Organisation to Protect the SLFP, not to fear disciplinary action initiated by a person who had kept jumping  from party to party and was now using  the SLFP to fulfil his agenda, Welgama pointed out that it was such persons who would eventually be  thrown out of the party.