Dissident MPs abstain from UNP Working Committee meeting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 01:12 GMT]
Dissident parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) who joined the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse last week and accepted minister posts, did not attend the 76-member working committee of the UNP held Tuesday evening at party headquarters "Sri Kotha" in Colombo, UNP sources said.

Twelve members of the UNP dissident group are members of the party working committee. Tissa Attanayake, party general secretary, invited them to attend the working committee meeting.

A spokesman of the dissident group said they could not attend the meeting as they received the notification at last minute.

Ranil Wickremasinghe presided over the meeting which focussed on the future activities of the party and the defection of UNP parliamentarians to the government side.

UNP working committee decided that members of dissident group can attend party meetings after resigning their cabinet minister posts in the UPFA government, party sources said.