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| Sunday, 16 May 2004 |
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SB: Compromise candidate? by Prasad Gunewardene The United National Party will not create a post of national organiser to accommodate the proposal to have former Minister S.B. Dissanayake in that rank. Instead a National Organisation Committee will be established to be headed by a Secretary. UNP sources said that Dissanayake was likely to be made Secretary of this proposed committee when the party Working Committee meets tomorrow to discuss reforms. Party General Secretary, Senarath Kapukotuwa, now in the centre of a controversy following the defeat at the April 02 general election was likely to step down tomorrow to make way for a UNP parliamentarian to fill that post. This parliamentarian is likely to be from the Kegalle District, a son of a former Justice Minister in the J.R. Jayewardene government. Kapukotuwa will be asked to contest the forthcoming Provincial Council election in the Central Province and the party leadership is likely to make him the chief minister nominee in the event the UNP secures power in the Council. According to these sources, party Chairman, Malik Samarawickreme would continue in his present capacity but a new post of UNP Deputy Chairman is to be created to accommodate a senior UNP parliamentarian to assist Samarawickreme. "There's no pressure to remove Samarawickreme as reported in the media. The leader wants to strengthen the office of party chairman by creating a new post", a senior UNP Parliamentarian from Colombo told the "Sunday Observer". He said if S.B. Dissanayake accepts the position of the Secretary of the National Organisation Committee, he (Dissanayake) would be asked to work with a team of experienced UNP parliamentarians. "The UNP never had a post of National Organiser and S.B. is too young in the UNP to handle such a task", the MP asserted. When the UNP Working Committee meets tomorrow, all reforms placed by the M.H. Mohamed Committee would be discussed at length, sources close to Mohamed said. However, according to party sources, the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has already decided on the new structure and has created posts of Secretaries to handle the 23 committees in the party. Another batch of 23 will be appointed as Deputy Secretaries to these committees. |
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