17 August 2011 03:07 pm
A move to suspend Colombo District Parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake from the party was thwarted with the intervention of Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya when the working committee met today. The party leadership had reportedly issued warnings to MP's Sujeewa Senasinghe and Buddhika Pathirana for misconduct.
"Today’s gathering showed the strength of the party, after a long time we were able to gather people from all walks of life against the leadership of the UNP. It is very clear that the government and the leaders of the UNP are working hand in hand with today’s peaceful procession at Sirikotha being disrupted," Sujeewa Senasinghe said. Commenting on the court order issued against the Sathyagraha, Senasinghe a lawyer himself said, "It is the first time in the history of this country that a peaceful sit down was prevented from a court order, the sudden decision to tar the road leading to Sirikotha clearly indicates the double agenda of the UNP leader," he said.
Senasinghe was livid about the report that he had been issued a warning from the leadership. “It is Ranil Wickremesinghe who needs to be disciplined, the underhand dealings with the government run back to the appointment of the speaker, the 18th amendment was passed without a word against it in the Hansard, The Leader has also met Ban Ki Moon to ask time for the government without the knowledge of the party, I have always been straight forward and spoken of all this at the parliamentary group meeting.I never had any dealings with the government unlike what is evident from the leaders actions" he said.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mirror on the move to suspend the party membership, Colombo District parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake stated that there was no possibility to take such a decision with the unconstitutionally constituted working committee. " Im hearing of this from the media and I’m yet to receive an official notification from the party, but what is clear is that this working committee is constituted in violation of the parties constitution adopted in April and they cannot take a decision that would bind, The two legal entities that can take decisions of the party is the working committee and the parliamentary group and when the working committee is illegally formed the parliamentary group had the legal right to take decisions, and what is clear is that the parliamentary group do not want Ranil Wickremesinghe as our leader anymore," she said.
The ongoing power struggle within the UNP took a vital turn with the reformists calling down party members to protests against the leadership, "I have always stood by the truth, and I will continue to do so. What the member of the party and the country needs is a viable opposition that can take on this government and we cannot do that with the current leadership, what we therefore need is an immediate change of the leader of the UNP," Senayake said. (Fazal Mohomed)