• Kabir reportedly met PM, but Akila denies meeting
• Mano Ganesan says ball is in UNP court now to decide on candidate and inform coalition parties
  
   

By Chathuri Dissanayake   

United National Party (UNP) parliamentary group meeting yesterday deferred the decision on selecting the candidate for the upcoming Presidential Election although the matter was expected to be taken up for discussion following the outcome from Sunday’s Party Leaders Meeting. 

According to some UNP parliamentarians the discussion was postponed following a meeting between the Prime Minister and Party Chairman Kabir Hashim. 

Minister Kabir Hashim met Premier Wickremesinghe prior to the Parliamentary group meeting yesterday, where he submitted a formal letter on the matter, one UNP Minister told Daily FT. 

“A letter requesting the leadership to take the matter of Presidential candidate selection with 54 signatures out the UNP MPs in Parliament was given to the Prime Minister by Kabir Hashim. There was a discussion then and it was decided to take the matter up separately, so the matter was not discussed. It was not clear who will attend tomorrow’s meeting.  

Following the discussion it was decided to hold a meeting with all Party seniors tomorrow to discuss the matter. However the Party General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam denied such a decision was made at yesterday’s meeting. 

“Nothing beyond parliamentary matters were discussed. We don’t know if there was a letter submitted, and we have not been informed about a meeting yet,” Kariyawasam told Daily FT. 

Tamil Progressive Alliance Leader and United National Front member Mano Ganesan who attended Sunday’s meeting on the formation of new alliance ‘Democratic National Front’ noted that it was the responsibility of the UNP now to decide on the candidate and inform the parties of the alliance for their consideration. 

“The ball is in their court now, we have completed the discussion on the constitution and agreed on it largely. Then we have also told the UNP to decide on the General Secretary and the candidate. The UNP can decide on the matter following their mechanism and let us – the other parties know. We will then inform them of our decision, and if we don’t like it we will inform them. If the UNP cannot change it, whichever the parties who are in disagreement will leave the alliance,” Ganesan told Daily FT. 

“We don’t need to argue, we just need to work as gentlemen,” he said noting that there is no room for delays and drag the decision-making process. 

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