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Eighteen out of the 25 Blue Ministerial ones at Cabinet, State and Deputy Levels in the National Unity government had vowed to quit office if the term of office of local government bodies were allowed to expire. Now several days have passed since the local bodies in question had come under the purview of special commissioners, only four of the 18 Ministerial ones have quit office so far.

A sidekick asked a certain Blue Ministerial one who conveniently forgot to make good his threat why he backed out. The politico replied: “Machang, we thought the dissolution of our Diyawanna council would immediately follow the expiration of the terms of local bodies ruling out the necessity for us to quit office. Resigning before the dissolution would mean having to forego all official perks – vehicles, security and the salary apart from hundred and one other concessions. After all why should we reduce ourselves to hand-to-mouth existence with an election round the corner when all these perks will come handy?”