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Sri Lanka's ruling party to contest parliamentary election independently

Xinhua, June 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sri Lanka's ruling United National Party (UNP) on Friday announced that it would contest an upcoming parliamentary election independently, an official said.

UNP Senior member and Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella told journalists in capital Colombo that the party's decision to contest solo was taken at the UNP working committee meeting which met on Friday morning to discuss the elections.

Kiriella further said that the Committee had also decided to allow UNP leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint a nominations board to select the UNP candidates who would contest in the parliamentary elections.

The ruling UNP has been in the recent weeks, calling on President Maithripala Sirisena to dissolve parliament immediately, stating that the 100 days mandate it had been given since the Jan. 8 Presidential election had come to an end.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Perera said last week that the party would make a written request to the President to dissolve parliament without further delay in order to elect a new government.

Speaking to Xinhua on Friday, Perera expressed confidence in winning the parliamentary election so that the UNP could continue in government despite claims by the opposition that the present minority government had lost the confidence of the people.

"The opposition is weak. We are confident we will win," he said.

President Sirisena has assured the political parties that a parliamentary election would be held once the 20th Amendment to the constitution which includes key electoral reforms is passed in parliament.

The Amendment is expected to be presented to parliament in the coming weeks after which an immediate dissolution of parliament is expected. Endi