Ranil to run for President?
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is likely to be nominated as the UNP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Presidential candidate, senior party sources say.
Sources said that according to the UNP constitution it was the party leader who had to contest the presidential election unless he or she declined or was too feeble to undertake a rigorous campaign.
If a secret ballot was held among members of the Working Committee and Parliamentary Group, Wickremesinghe would emerge, a senior minister who did not wish to be named said, adding that the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim parties which would be joining the UNP-led NDA to be launched shortly, were also of the view that a senior and mature candidate such as Wickremesinghe was necessary, to draw in a cross section of Sri Lankan society including the Buddhists.
He added: “The UNP, anyway, has a sizeable Buddhist vote and most of the Tamil parties have already stated that they will not back Sajith Premadasa. It is the support of the youth who will become eligible to cast their ballots for the first time and that would be crucial to become President.”
The Minister said that some UNP MPs who had lost their electorates were clinging on to Sajith, in the hope that they would be able to perform better at the next general election, but what they had not realised was that their ongoing public campaign would affect the party and eventually ruin their chances of being re-elected.
(Source: The Island – By Zacki Jabbar)
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The most rational decision.
A winning decision too.
The UNP vote amongst Buddhist majority, the majority vote, the middle class vote and youth vote and JVP preference votes will ensure RW’s victory
Why not abolish the ineffective Presidential system for good from our country
middle class is the class that can afford to watch utube, post video clip on you yube.
ranil is too old to run with his beer belly he can hardly walk. if elected president then he will be first president to be ushered into prliamentary sessions on a wheel chair. good thing about ranil he was the strongest advocate to the abolition of of the executive presidency and replace it with a totaltarian dictatorship seconded by half witted ravi karunanayae and dumb magala samaraweera, ranjan ramanayaka will find a place as the presidential clowns.
the spies masqurading as ambassadors will find a permanant place in his advisory comitees as defence, finanace and port authrity.
taking a page out of nagananda he should abolish parliament convert it into a exclusive prison for the opposition and diyawannawa to be made into a moat filled with crocodiles trained to eat men