COLOMBO – The Working Committee of the United National Party (UNP), which failed to reach a consensus on a new leader on Tuesday (25), have decided to meet next week to decide on who will head the Grand Old Party.
Tuesday’s meeting of the party’s top decision-making body also sought to decide on a nominate for National List seat, which also remains unresolved.
Party sources have said the priority issue is to find a replacement for Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has said he will step down after the party suffered its biggest ever defeat in the August 5 parliamentary general elections, succeeding only in securing a single National List spot.
Wickremesinghe, a four-time prime minister, has been the party’s leader for 26 years.
On Monday (24), former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, in a public statement, said he was willing and ready to take over the party’s leadership. According to party sources, his name had been proposed at Tuesday’s Working Coming meeting by former minister Navin Dissanayake, who also happens to be his son-in-law. But the proposal had been shot down by other members of the Committee, who pointed out that Jayasuriya had resigned from the Party, and will also be 80 years old at the end of next month.
The Party constitution stipulates that the leader must be chosen from among party members. Jayasuriya resigned from the party after he was appointed Speaker of Parliament in 2016.
The consensus, party sources said, was that the UNP should appoint a younger person as the leader, so that it can rebuild to contest the 2025 elections.
Wickremesinghe and his supporters in the party favour the former State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene, to be the new leader. Wijewardene is Wickremesinghe’s nephew.
Wickremesinghe himself is the nephew of former UNP leader and President J R Jayewardene.
As to whom they will nominate to Parliament will be decided after the leader is found, these sources said.
Meanwhile, Dissanayake is reported to be leading a faction in the UNP leaning towards rebuilding relations with the breakaway Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), which has emerged as the biggest Opposition group in Parliament.
Dissanayake’s brother who has joined the SJB was appointed to Parliament on the SJB National List.
ENCL/economynext.com