UNP national convention held, dissidents boycott

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2006, 13:32 GMT]
The 51st annual national of the convention of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) was held Sunday held in Colombo with Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, party leader in the chair. Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya and seventeen important leaders of the party did not attend the conference following the unsuccessful legal measure to stop the convention failed on Friday, political sources in Colombo said.

The notable absentees included parliamentarians Professor G.L.Peiris, Milinda Morogoda, Bandula Gunawardene, Rajitha Senaratne and party national organizer S.B.Dissanayake.

Political sources said that, Mr.Karu Jayasuriya, in a letter addressed to party leader Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe had already intimated the reasons for the boycott of the convention. The failure of the party high command to include party reforms proposals submitted by S.B.Dissanayake in the convention agenda, the letter said.

However, a senior UNP member attending the convention said, the reforms proposed by Dissanayake were re-formulated into a set of political principles aimed at reconstituting the working committee and political affairs committee of the party.