Local UNP government members of Sri Lanka extend their support to Premadasa

The leadership hopeful of Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP), Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa has received the support of local government members in several districts.

UNP local government members and provincial councilors from the Kurunegala District yesterday (18) passed a resolution calling on UNP Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe to step down from the post of Leader and appoint Premadasa.
The UNP local government members and councilors also passed a resolution calling for voting rights to be given to them when electing members to senior posts in the party.
Opposition Leader of the Pannala Pradeshiya Sabha, Nilantha Herath told ColomboPage that the UNP members have also decided to give the party leadership a 15-day period to address the party crisis.
"If the crisis is not resolved in 15 days, when the UNP parliamentarians decide to sit independently in the House, we would also sit independently in our respective local government bodies in the North Western Provincial Council. After the 15 days we will make our next move," Herath said.

"The local government elections are to be held in three months and we are faced with many issues due to the current party crisis. UNP voters in the villagers have told us that if the current trend continues, they would not vote at the LG elections," he said.
He noted that the UNP members who attended yesterday's meeting had blamed Wickremasinghe for the continuous electoral defeats experienced by the party and blamed him for delaying the party reforms since 2004.
Meanwhile, UNP local government members in the districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Galle today have passed resolutions that Premadasa be made the leader of the party.