UNP denies printing UPFA's second manifesto

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 March 2004, 11:23 GMT]
The United National Party (UNP) has called the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate an allegation by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that the UNP was responsible for printing a second UPFA's manifesto which is currently in circulation, political sources in Colombo said.

UNP Chairman, Senarath Kapukotuwa, in a letter to the CID said that the allegtion that his party printed a second manifesto was totally false and he wants an inquiry into the claim made by the Freedom Alliance.

UPFA ran into problems after it published a second manifesto with serious differences from the original manifesto released on March 11.

The UPFA is strongly denying that they published a second manifesto, but some of the alliance candidates themselves are admitting in public that there was a second manifesto.

A candidate contesting from the Colombo district from the UPFA during a television programme openly admitted that there was a second manifesto and that he has received 50,000 copies to be distributed among his supporters.

The candidate, Ratna Gamage, told the MTV channel that the Presidential Secretariat had sent him the second manifesto.

There are range of differences between first manifesto and between the second manifesto.