By Skandha Gunasekara Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and the United National Front (UNF) would decide who in the United National Party (UNP) would receive nominations at future elections through a nomination board appointed by the proposed alliance, UNP MP Gayantha Karunatileka said. Below are excerpts of his interview with The Sunday Morning: Is your group satisfied with the current turn of events in which Ranil Wickremesinghe has retained the UNP leadership? Yes. Premadasa has been made the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the United National Front alliance, and will also be the prime ministerial candidate of the alliance. So if he is given the leeway to carry out the necessary campaigns and election activity, I believe he will be successful at the next election. How will such an arrangement work when it comes to decision making on matters related to the alliance and the UNP? Both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa will have to come to some sort of agreement to ensure that they can corporate without clashing. What reasons were given for the removal of MP Ajith P. Perera and another three UNPers from the party’s Working Committee? I was not present at the Working Committee (meeting) on that day. But as far as I know, the futures of these four are still undecided. Was disciplinary measures taken? Yes. That is what the Party General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said. But we all hope that we can go forward as one united group instead of having all this infighting. In the earlier arrangement between the UNF alliance and the UNP, the UNP Leader had a majority vote in decision making. Would it continue this way? If so, do you foresee future disagreements between Premadasa and Wickremesinghe? No, now the dynamic is different from before. The leader of the alliance is not the UNP leader. So now, the stakeholders, when it comes to decision making, would be the other party leaders in the UNF alliance and Premadasa, who would be representing the UNP. They will have to come together and take decisions. What about giving nominations through the UNF alliance to UNP MPs at future elections? Who would decide who gets nominations? That will be decided by the alliance leader and other relevant leaders. They will first have to appoint a nominations board to deicide. Do you think there will be further disagreements between Premadasa and Wickremesinghe in the future? I hope that there will be no division in the party and that we can move forward together as one party under the leadership of Premadasa and be successful at future elections. As the General Secretary of the proposed alliance, MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara would be responsible for giving nominations at the upcoming elections. Can he refuse to give nominations to members of the UNP who would be seeking to contest under the UNF? No, I don’t see any reason for them not to give nominations to anybody. It will be the responsibility of the nomination board to select a suitable group of individuals to give nominations at future elections. But does the alliance have the power to refuse to give nominations? Like I said before, all these things will have to be decided by the nominations board as they will be the sole authority on deciding who gets nominations. Will Wickremesinghe be a part of this nomination board? I’m unaware of who will be appointed to the nomination board. Does MP Madduma Bandara’s appointment as the UNF General Secretary need to be approved by the UNP Working Committee? At the last parliamentary group meeting, his appointment was proposed and approved. The next Working Committee will only meet again on Monday (10). But is the UNP Working Committee approval needed or has his appointment as the alliance General Secretary been confirmed? No, I don’t think such an issue will arise. He was appointed by the UNF alliance and its leader. So I don’t think approval of the UNP Working Committee will be needed. We are trying our best to move forward without creating any more issues. What role will Wickremesinghe play at future elections? I will have to speak to him and answer that question. I think he will continue as is. Many have alleged that Wickremesinghe and some of his supporters worked against Premadasa behind the scenes at the last presidential election campaign. Is there a fear that he could do so again? We are all working to ensure that such things don’t happen. The UNP and the alliance are all trying our best to face the upcoming parliamentary elections as one united and powerful front. But why did Wickremesinghe try to sabotage Premadasa’s campaign? I’ve no information on this, so I cannot answer you. Yet another attempt to change the UNP leadership has failed and Wickremesinghe remains. Isn’t there any way to remove him? Well, the party is working according to its Constitution. In addition, the parliamentary group and the leadership will take all decisions based on the needs of the people and the wishes of our supporters. Amidst all these obstacles, why are you continuing to remain in the UNP without breaking away and forming a separate alliance or party? There has been no need for such a split. Our intentions are to move forward together as one group. It is better to be a united front than a divided set of groups fighting each other. Therefore, we are working towards a united, broad alliance. Which district will Premadasa contest from? I cannot say for certain. From what I’ve heard, he is expected to contest from Colombo. He is an individual who can contest from any district and win, so he will decide what’s best.