The United National Party (UNP) today said, the Government had no right to question the UNP’s relationship with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) because the Government was directly interacting with former LTTE personnel without taking legal action against them.

“TNA is a political party in the Parliament and also represents the party collective of ‘Vipakshaya Virodaya’ with UNP. But the Government is interacting with personnel from a banned terrorist group without taking legal action against them. It has no ethical right to question our engagement with the TNA,” UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a news conference.

He accused the Government of deploying former LTTE members, in the United National Freedom Alliance (UPFA), for its political campaign.     

Mr. Attanayake said the Government pre-election surveys indicated that the UNP and other opposition parties were leading in the Provincial Council elections. Therefore the Government was attempting to sabotage the UNP’s political campaign.

“The government is afraid of losing the Provincial Council elections due to the results of a survey carried out by its officers. Therefore the Government was trying to sabotage the UNP’s political campaign by misusing Government properties and deploying security forces in UPFA political campaigns,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)