President to call for a national government

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to make a fresh call for a national government on April 25 when Parliament takes up the debate on the IMF extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mano Ganesan told Daily Mirror that President had informed him and MP Rauff Hakeem that he would make a fresh call on that day to all opposition MPs to extend support for the idea.

MP Ganesan told Daily Mirror that although the President said he would make the call when Parliament meets, he did not extend such an invitation when we met him.

Earlier, the MP said he together with MP Rauff Hakeem initiated an effort to bring the UNP and SJB under one umbrella, but they had to abandon the idea since the SJB leadership did not respond.

"However the subject of "premiership" never popped up in our discussion. All media reports claiming that the President had sent messages to opposition leader Sajith Premadasa offering him the Premiership were false and baseless," he added. (Yohan Perera)