UNP needs new faces and new leadership: Ranil Wickremesinghe

COLOMBO (News 1st) - A group of UNP organizers and Provincial Councillors attended a meeting in Colombo this morning. General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam also attended the event. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the United National Party noted that if they work hard together for the general elections they could have a favourable result. He added that if they are councillors or organizers who claim that they still can't go to the village, they should leave and provide opportunities to others. He went on to note that they must go to the village with maha sangha, the middle class and the youth. He further added that it is a competition between parties, what they had was a contest between two individuals and they should find solutions to these issues to win back support of the public which is the challenge the entire party has to face. The former Prime Minister expressed these views on the leadership of the party. Ranil Wickremesinghe: "The party now needs new faces and a new leadership group. We must be strong by 2025, however, we must not wait until then, we must organize ourselves now. I have always said that I will never be here forever and have no intention to be here forever either. Give me a plan as a party on how we should move forward, and I will work according to that plan. But that plan must be presented together, they can't present plans as separate groups." Meanwhile, Chaminda Wijesiri, UNP Parliamentarian noted that they are aware that time was killed in appointing committees in the recent past. He added that if there is a committee appointed that would not waste time, it would not function for long he added that they cannot be patient. He went on to note that they cannot run for the General Election, in the same manner, they ran for the Presidential Election. There are several moments in the history of the UNP, where a path was created for the leadership to build the party. The Panditharatne Committee and the Srinath Perera Committee are just two of them. The most recent recommendations presented regarding the reforms to the leadership of the party was included in the Ruwan Wijewardena Committee report. Bandula Lal Bandarigoda who functioned as the Secretary of the Committee recently expressed the following views: "After the local government elections, Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed the Ruwan Wijewardena Committee to look into these matters. I was the Secretary of that Committee. We convened many times and handed over a comprehensive report to Ranil Wickremesinghe. What is the point of holding more discussions on the same matter when the Ruwan Wijeyawardena committee recommendations have not been implemented? Leaders of our party will have ample reasons to take a decision according to their conscience looking at the Local Government Election results and the results of this election. I have a huge problem as to why we should provide more information and recommendations to the people who warmed their seats at the party headquarters in Sirikotha, while completely discarding the public mandate for 25 years. Why are we continuing to deal with these people like this?"