Disagreements stall SJB, UNP common front
The talks between the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) and the United National Party (UNP) to form a common front for the upcoming General Election has stalled due to disagreements on several main points, political sources said.
The UNP nominated a delegation including Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijeyawardena and former MP Thalatha Athukorala to start negotiations with the SJB to form a broad political alliance after the Presidential Election.
This group has currently held about eight rounds of negotiations with the SJB representatives and two main points presented by the SJB side in the above discussions have caused a disagreement between the two groups. One of the main issues is the condition that the SJB symbol, the telephone should be used to contest the upcoming election.
The request made by the SJB that the former President and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe should not be in the new alliance has also become a powerful obstacle to move the negotiations forward.
The UNP representatives are of the opinion that since the majority of the votes received by Ranil Wickremesinghe, who ran as an Independent candidate in the last Presidential Election, are considered to be his personal votes, it is impossible to agree to a political alliance without the former President.
The UNP delegation has emphasised that the support Wickremesinghe, who has shown astute political leadership by rebuilding the country’s economy in two years, should definitely be used in future political activities. Another condition that SJB has put forward is that the leadership of the new alliance should be given to their leader Sajith Premadasa.
United National Party representatives have strongly opposed that proposal as well.
A senior UNP official said that according to the current situation, the negotiations leading to the merger of SJB and UNP to form a new political alliance cannot continue.
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