Amaratunga stakes claim for sole UNP National List slot

… if Ranil not interested

by Zacki Jabbar

The UNP leadership is scheduled to meet today to decide who should get the National List seat the party received at last week’s general election.

Senior UNPer John Amaratunga said yesterday that as number one on the party’s National List, he would stake a claim to the seat if leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was not interested.

All indications were that Wickremesinghe was not keen on being in the legislature at this juncture and would focus on restructuring the party, he noted.

Amaratunga recalled that he had served the UNP as a loyal member and been elected to Parliament over a period of four decades. “That is why, I was placed on top of the National List,” he added.

No one should forget the senior leadership’s contribution to the party through thick and thin, the veteran UNPer said, stressing that seniority had to be recognised and rewarded and gratitude practised if society as a whole was to evolve for the better.

Amaratunga hoped that the unfortunate recent past could be forgotten and the United National Party and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya came together at some point in time because there was hardly any difference in their policies and most importantly neither propagated racism as a means of capturing power.