• UNP responds to reports of Premadasa willing to be PM under a future Ranil Presidency 

If Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa wants to take the Premiership under President Ranil Wickremesinghe after a future Presidential Election, he (Premadasa) should support the President first to get elected as the President again with his team, said the United National Party (UNP).

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (16), UNP General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara claimed that all the doors of the UNP are open for anyone who is willing to support the unstoppable victory of Wickremesinghe but not for political opportunists. He also said that even though there is a Party called the SJB, almost all its members are UNPers and that therefore, he sees no problem in working together for the victory of the UNP in an election. However, he said if anyone wants to be the Prime Minister under a Wickremesinghe Government, he/she should endorse him (Wickremesinghe) in a Presidential Election and that if it is not so, the people and the parties who support the President will not be happy. Range Bandara further claimed that the SJB has refused several invitations made by the President asking them to support him, but that most of its Parliamentarians will support the President in the future. When it comes to the Premiership matter, he said that even if Wickremesinghe becomes the President again, it is necessary that either the incumbent Cabinet of Ministers should resign or the Parliament should be dissolved in order to appoint a new Premier. Therefore, he said that firstly, the SJB should support the President before making plans to make Premadasa the Prime Minister.

Recently, it was reported that certain SJB MPs are of the opinion that they should support President Wickremesinghe at a future Presidential Election on the condition that he appoints Premadasa as the Prime Minister if he emerges victorious.