The pro-Sajith Premadasa faction in the United National Party (UNP) has collected signatures of more than 50 MPs for a letter requesting party leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to convene a meeting of the parliamentary group and the working committee to decide on the party's presidential candidate, a senior minister said.

He said the letter would be sent next week to the party leader.

There is an intense battle going on in UNP over presidential candidate with one faction supporting Mr. Premadasa who is the party's deputy leader and the other supporting Mr. Wickremesinghe while another group is promoting Speaker Karu Jayasuriya for the presidency. (Kelum Bandara)