General elections

UNP to contest as joint front?

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The United National Party (UNP) will meet other party leaders of the United National Front (UNF) this week to explore possibilities of contesting the forthcoming general election as a joint front under the UNF.
General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake told LAKBIMAnEWS that they are will have a dialogue with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) as well, although the JVP announced earlier that they will contest the general election alone.
“We will meet party leaders and decide within this week because we need to regroup and reorganize. The parties of the UNF will most probably contest together but I’m not in a position to say whether we will compete with the JVP and the Tamil National Alliance,” he said.
“There was no agreement with either party during the presidential election so it’s up to these parties to decide whether to join the UNF or not.”
Commenting on the common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka’s announcement last week that he will be contesting in the general election under the swan symbol, Attanayake claimed that they have not given up hope that General Fonseka will contest with the UNF. “We have a lot of options. But everything will be decided within the week.”
Parliament will be dissolved after Independence Day on February 4th in order to set the pace for a general election which is expected to be held shortly. However, parliament completes its six-year term in April this year.
Earlier the government had a plan to call an All Party Conference and bring constitutional changes to scrap certain powers of the President in order to make him answerable to parliament.
“But we wont have time for such an exercise , therefore we will go for a Parliamentry election before April and then make the necessary constitutional amendments,” Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abheyawardena told LAKBIMAnEWS.
The Elections Department has allocated Rs.1800 million for the general election. The UPFA is calling for applications to finalise candidates but the opposition is in disarray after a humiliating defeat at the presidential election.
Meanwhile, the UNP is gathering evidence on election malpractices and election law violations which occurred in the presidential election. The UNP general secretary claimed that a team of lawyers are looking at the evidence to file a law suit in the Supreme Court in the coming month.
“Already we have gathered a lot of evidence to prove that election malpractices have taken place. This includes instances from chasing away counting agents to rigging. We will reveal all the information we have in front of the courts and prove to all Sri Lankans that this was not a legitimate election. We will definitely file a law suit before the parliamentary election,” he said.