… alleges constituents of alliance undermined
Row over National List positions:
UNP Leader and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken exception to the sumbission of Ravi Karunanayake’s name to the Election Commission (EC) as one of the two National List (NL) MPs of the New Democratic Front (NDF). He has said the NDF General Secretary submitted Karunanayake’s name without the concurrence of the constitutes of the alliance.
Wickremesinghe said so at a meeting of NDF representatives in Colombo. He said the leaders of the NDF constituents were to meet on 19 Nov., to make a final decision on the two NL positions allocated to the NDF. He alleged that NDF General Secretary had acted unilaterally.
The NDF contested last week’s general election under the ‘Gas Cylinder’ symbol.
General Secretary of the NDF Shermila Perera yesterday conveyed to the EC the name of Karunanayake, adding that the name of the other NL MP would be notified later.
The NDF managed to secure a total of five seats in Parliament, including two NL slots by obtaining 500,835 votes.
In the meantime, Anuradha Jayaratne, who obtained 20,749 preferential votes in the Kandy District, former MP Rohitha Abeygunawardhana, who secured 10,204 preferential votes in the Kalutara District, and Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, who received 19,359 preferential votes in the Badulla District, are the only NDF parliamentary candidates who have secured seats in the 10th Parliament.
