UPF to support UNP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 December 1999, 11:24 GMT]
The Up-Country People's Front (UPF), led by a deputy minister of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) has decided to support the main opposition party candidate, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, in the presidential election due in two weeks.

The decision to support the UNP was taken at the UPF's national council meeting held yesterday in the hill town of Talawakele, in the Nuwara Eliya district said party sources.

The leader of the UPF, Mr. P. Chandrasekaran, holds the position of Deputy Minister of Estate Housing in the current PA led government.

UPF sources said the party has decided to support the UNP, in order to secure the rights of the plantation workers, and to bring peace and stability to the country. They also blamed the PA government for failing to full-fill the needs of the plantation people.

The UPF sources said they had earlier put forward 10 conditions, among other things, to secure the release of a large number of youths from the plantation areas, detained in various prisons. But the government has so far not responded they added.

Last week the leader of the Ceylon National Workers Congress led by Mr. M. S. Sellasamy pledged its support to the UNP candidate.