Ranil should enter P’ment as National List MP: SJB MP

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should enter Parliament filling the sole National List slot of the United National Party (UNP), since there was none other than him more experienced in Parliamentary affairs, an SJB MP said yesterday.

Mr. Jayamaha said he regretted the absence of Mr. Wickremesinghe in Parliament this time.

“I am saddened about the absence of Mr. Wickremesinghe in the new Parliament as I believe that he is a person who must be in the House given his experience on parliamentary affairs.

“I honestly feel like making an official request from the UNP Leadership to come to Parliament through the national list,” he said.

Also, Mr. Jayamaha said UNP should handover the party to Mr. Premadasa immediately as a majority of UNPers had endorsed his leadership at the recent general elections.

“The SJB had got more than 50 seats at the general elections while UNP had got only one National List slot. This means that the UNPers are with Mr Premadasa,” Mr Jayamaha added.

“SJB expected that UNP would get around ten to fifteen seats but unexpectedly it ended up with only a national list slot,” he also said.

“I don’t think the people will vote in any of the defeated UNPers even to a local body. This is why we are saying that UNP should be handed over to Mr. Premadasa,” he stressed.

Referring to the new cabinet, he said that state ministers should have been appointed to be in charge of all local industries, if the government is arguing that the reason behind appointing a State Minister of Batik, Handlooms and Pottery was to revive these industries.

“A state Minister should be put in charge of all local industries so that that they could contribute maximum to the national economy,” he said. (Yohan Perera)