Courtesy srilankamirror.com

UNP deputy leader – Sajith Premadasa has been informed through close associates that Ranil Wickremesinghe will not give the party candidacy to him, reports say.

A news report by the ‘Aruna’ newspaper states that if Mr. Premadasa wishs to contest the presidential election regardless as a separate candidate, he has the opportunity to do so by choosing Aruna de Soyza’s Democratic 
National Movement.

Preference for Karu

However, the UNP leader is quite fine about passing the candidacy to Karu Jayasuriya, reports say.

Meanwhile, the state-owned ‘Silumina’ newspaper reports that a group of prominent UNP figures and party seniors have urged Karu Jayasuriya to take initiative to gather all parties to assure a UNP victory at the upcoming presidential election.

Although there should be 96 members at the UNP Working Committee, the figure currently stands at 65 and also includes members of the 75-man strong parliamentary group.

However, the total of the UNP WC and the parliamentary group stand at 120.

From this figure, around 45 are of the opinion that Ranil Wickremesinghe should be named party candidate. Thirty-eight of these 45 members directly back Mr. Wickremesinghe while 07 others are in an in-between state, reports
add.

However, Sajith is only backed by 27 members with 22 of them offering direct support.

It is also noted that even though the 07 members who are in an in-between state will turn towards him, Sajith will still have just the support of 30 members in total.