UNP Reforms Committee recommendations:

Views of local bodies also to be sought

by Ananda Kannangara

The main opposition UNP yesterday stressed that the recommendations made by the Reforms Committee on appointing the party leader and four other top posts will be carried out after seeking the views and suggestions of all members of UNP Local Government institutions countrywide.

UNP media spokesman Gayantha Karunatilleka told the Sunday Observer that merely seeking the views only from the UNP Executive Committee and UNP parliamentarians were not sufficient for the recommendations, submitted by the Reforms Committee.

Therefore, it is up to the UNP members in all local government institutions, Provincial Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas countrywide to submit their proposals to the executive committee.

He said that their views and suggestions to restructure the party which was unable to gain power for the past 16 years will thereafter be submitted to the National Convention, scheduled to be held in July this year.

“If more than one name is submitted for the leadership, then it will be decided on by a secret ballot,”.

Meanwhile, a senior party source at Sirikotha told the Sunday Observer that only the names of current leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa are likely to be submitted as the next national leader.

“However, if Sajith Premadasa gets more votes, considering that Ranil Wickremesinghe had lost nearly 14 elections in a row, then the present leader will remain as an MP and also as an advisor to the party,” he said.