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The United National Party’s (UNP) leadership battle took a fresh turn yesterday, with the Committee members tasked with deciding the UNP’s future saying that their recommendation was to appoint MP Sajith Premadasa as the next Party Leader, and called for the confirmation process to be expedited.
The six-member Committee had decided that if Sajith Premadasa was made the Opposition Leader and was to run for the Prime Ministerial position in the upcoming General Elections, he should be made the Party Leader.
UNP parliamentarian Ranjith Madduma Bandara stated that the special Committee appointed by the party to decide on the future UNP leadership had decided that MP Sajith Premadasa should become the Party Leader.
“We need to reform the party and move forward, the people want Sajith Premadasa to lead the UNP at the next election,” he said, claiming that if the party secured the same number of votes Premadasa received during the Presidential Elections, the party could obtain 104 seats in the chamber.
According to Madduma Bandara, the Committee was comprised of parliamentarians Thalatha Atukorale, Malik Samarawickrama, Lakshman Kiriella, Vajira Abeywardene, Prof. Ashu Marasinghe and himself.
UNP parliamentarian Thalatha Atukorale, speaking to the press yesterday, said that the six-member Committee had submitted their decisions to the party, and that they await the Executive Committee taking the matter up. Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Chandrani Bandara and Atukorale held the press conference.
“We have given the party our Committee’s decision, we await the party Executive Committee to decide on it,” she said, adding that there were many who had placed their trust in Premadasa, and the party needs to move forward with it.
Madduma Bandara labelled as inappropriate a statement by UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam on Tuesday that the UNP will meet the upcoming election under Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership, arguing that neither the Executive Committee nor the party convention has decided on it yet.
However, Kariyawasam told the Daily FT that Wickremesinghe is still the Party Leader. He argued that he cannot comment on as of yet un-appointed leaders, and did not know a timeframe for when a new leader will be appointed, citing the need to follow the Party Constitution.
“I can’t comment on leaders waiting to be appointed, the Party Constitution has to be followed, the Executive Committee must be called, a Party Convention must be organised, I can’t comment on a timeframe,” he added.
Atukorale said that the committee had received a proposal to form a ‘leadership team’, but had rejected the idea. “We are not used to working with ‘leadership teams’, we are used to working with a leader,” she argued. Furthermore, Athukorala emphasised that, “We don’t want to go ahead with this kind of instability and confusion, there are 5.6 million people who have placed their trust in Sajith Premadasa, and he want to move forward with all UNPers.”
Atukorale recalled how delays in naming Sajith Premadasa as presidential candidate for the last election cost the party at the polls. “You all know that it is very hard to run an effective election campaign in forty days,” she said, pointing out that the manner in which the UNP campaign was handled had left many party faithful confused, and raised some divisions among the party members.
“Our Party Leader has got the message, he knows who the voters and party have placed their faith in. If he is giving Sajith Premadasa the candidature to run for Prime Minister, he must also give Premadasa the party leadership, it is only then that you build confidence in the public and party members. Therefore we believe that these decisions need to be taken soon, preferably this month, after going for a Party Convention to approve the decision we have taken, so that we can start the election campaign,” Bandara argued. She called on Ranil Wickremesinghe to take a decision without further delay.
Responding to a question by the press, the three parliamentarians stated that they could not comprehend why the party leadership was taking a long time to respond to the public sentiments and the sentiments of their own parliamentary group.
