Responsible persons in the UNP should not provoke the party members and create divisions in the party, Assistant General Secretary of the party Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena said yesterday.

“It is a crime to mislead the ordinary members of the party by creating divisions among them as they are the back bone of the party,” Dr. Jayawardena said in a statement yesterday.

He said the party hierarchy should work towards uniting the members at grassroots level by telling the truth.

Dr. Jayawardene said the party hierarchy should realise that what the ordinary party members wanted was a UNP government and not to rebel against the leadership.

“All responsible persons in the party should understand this reality,” he said.

He explained that two ideologies regarding the working committee and the parliamentary group had led to the present crisis in the party.

“Some are of the view that the two bodies represent the majority view of the members while others hold an opposite view,” he added.

However, Dr. Jayawardene said the current party constitution was never adopted with the aim of ousting anyone from a position. He said the party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, the executive committee and the working committee were responsible for enacting this constitution.

He added that the national executive committee and the working committee of the party also comprised MPs, and representatives of party affiliated associations. He therefore said the working committee under the new constitution was effectively appointed.

“Therefore one cannot conclude that the said committees do not reflect the common views of the party,” he said. Dr. Jayawardena thereby said the officer bearers for 2012 had been elected effectively. (Yohan Perera)