The Election Commission (EC) has issued a gazette notification announcing that Ravi Karunanayake has been elected to Parliament on the National List from the New Democratic Front (NDF).
The former minister's name had been sent to the EC earlier today by the party's secretary. However, the move has caused controversy, with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe stating this evening that the NDF secretary had unilaterally named Mr Karunanayake for the National List position.
A meeting had been scheduled in Colombo today to collectively decide on the two national list seats allocated to the coalition.
The former President informed representatives of the coalition that the nomination of Mr Karunanayake for the NDF's national list parliamentary seat was carried out unilaterally, without the consent of any of the coalition parties.
Ravi Karunanayake is a member of the United National Party (UNP), and according to Mr. Wickremesinghe, no decision can be made without collective agreement. He further emphasized that acting unilaterally in this manner, especially when all coalition representatives were set to meet formally to decide on the matter, is unacceptable.
Aside from Mr Karunanayake, the EC has also gazetted the names of Namal Rajapaksa and P. Saththiyalingam, who had been nominated for the National List seats won by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) respectively.
The Attorney General’s Department has interdicted Senior State Counsel (SSC) Shaminda Wickrema.
A passenger trying pass the Customs officials on a wheelchair was arrested with narcotics last night at the Bandaranaike International Airport.
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