13 December 2019 12:04 am
Two members of the committee appointed by UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to look into party reforms had announced their resignation yesterday requesting the party leadership to call for a working committee meeting and to appoint presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa as the new leader.
MPs Ranjith Madduma Bandara and Thalatha Athukorala who were members of five member committee appointed to look into party reforms announced their resignation at a press conference yesterday and called for the appointment of Mr. Premadasa as the new UNP leader.
Mr. Madduma Bandara said a working committee meeting should be called immediately so that a new leader could be appointed to the party. “We have informed the party leadership of our decision to resign from the reforms committee and had requested for a working committee meeting be summoned soon.
We feel there is nothing left to discuss on party matters as more than 99% of the UNP members want Mr. Premadasa as the leader,” he said.
MP Athukorala said they are against the proposal to appoint a leadership committee to handle the general election campaign. “We are used to working with one leader rather than working with a leadership council,” she said.
“The comments made by some party members about party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe makes us sad as some say Mr. Premadasa’s campaign was sabotaged. We are sad as no such thing happened during the presidential election. Grassroots level party members would criticize the party leader more, if UNP is not reformed soon,” she added.
Also, the MPs said Mr. Premadasa is a mature leader, though he is 52-years of age. They said the global trend is that young politicians are appointed to top positions as in Finland, where a young politician was appointed as the new Prime Minister of that country.