Expressing her displeasure over the postponement of the UNP working committee meeting from today (17) to tomorrow (18), UNP MP Hirunika Premachandra yesterday said the party should stop dilly dallying in making decisions like the way it did during the Presidential election.
Ms. Premachandra told a press conference that the UNP should get its act together and give up its habit of getting bogged down during electoral defeats.
“The issue with the UNP is that it gets bogged down during electoral defeats and then takes years and years to come back to power”. It should therefore take a leaf out of the SLPP book and should give hope to the party members. The SLPP from the time it was defeated in 2015 gave hope to its people saying they will secure power before the next Poya day. SLPPers were repeatedly told they will secure power during Poya after Poya. They came to power at the day. This is the kind of practice the UNP should also follow,” she said.
She said the party should also fulfil the expectations of party members who have worked hard for years and years. “There are party members who have worked for years and years but are still to get employment even for their children. We feel sorry for them when they come to us with their plight,” she said.
Ms. Premachandra said no one in the party should be fussy about the symbol on which it is going to contest from. Again she said the UNP should take a leaf out of the SLFP which contested the general election in 1994 under the chair symbol and then shifted to a betel leaf and then towards a flower bud.
At the same time she said the new alliance lead by the Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa will contest either from the heart symbol or the swan symbol. “ However it is more likely that the alliance would contest under the swan symbol,” she said.
(Daily Mirror (Yohan Perera)
