The United National Party (UNP) refuted claims that the name of Opposition Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake was submitted to the Election Commission (EC) for a National List MP position of the New Democratic Front (NDF) after informing former President Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

In a press release issued, UNP Chairperson Wajira Abeywardana asserted that these claims are “entirely false”. According to Abeywardana, there was no prior notification to Wickremesinghe regarding the submission of Karunanayake's name to the EC for the National List Parliamentary position. He further dismissed the claim that an agreement had been reached to appoint a candidate from the NDF to a National List MP position allocated from the Parliamentary General Election results, labelling it as “baseless”. 

The controversy emerged after the Parliamentary General Election, when a special discussion involving party leaders took place on 16 November. This meeting, Chaired by Wickremesinghe, aimed to determine the Parliamentary positions received by the NDF. During the discussion, it was agreed that a final decision on filling the National List MP positions would be deferred until a meeting set for Tuesday (19). At the same meeting, it was announced that a complete agreement with the NDF should be presented at the next discussion. “Despite this, on Monday (18), NDF General Secretary Shermila Perera, met with Wickremesinghe and advocated for the appointment of Karunanayake. At that meeting, Wickremesinghe highlighted that appointing Karunanayake, a member of the UNP, to the National List of the NDF was not feasible. Perera concurred with Wickremesinghe’s position, indicating agreement not to proceed with Karunanayake’s nomination“, the statement read. According to Abeywardana, prior to the scheduled meeting of the party leaders, Perera took the decision to submit Karunanayake’s name to the EC on Monday, leading to a critical dispute over the National List MP positions assigned to the NDF. “Observations from the meeting on Tuesday revealed that the agreement with the NDF was not fully presented, with several key documents reportedly missing. According to the agreement with the NDF, there was no provision to nominate any candidate for a National List MP position after the 2024 Parliamentary Election,“ it read. He described the actions of Perera as a “significant error and an arbitrary act”, stating that her decisions were inconsistent with the terms of the relevant memorandum of understanding. “There was no prior agreement to fill the National List MP position on Monday,” Abeywardana clarified. He emphasised that a decision should have been made at the meeting of the party leaders scheduled for Tuesday (21). He also pointed out that the submission of Karunanayake’s name to the EC occurred under his direction, before the leaders’ meeting.