Ranil to offer Karu post of "National Leader"

United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet Speaker Karu Jayasuriya this weekend to request him to accept the post of "National Leader" of the party and lead its campaign at the upcoming General Election. 

A source close to Mr Wickremesinghe stated that the former Premier has decided to offer the post of National Leader to Mr Jayasuriya as a large number of Buddhist monks have asked him to appoint the Speaker to a leadership position in the party as he has a large Sinhala Buddhist voter base and can attract more Sinhala Buddhist votes for the party. 

Meanwhile, Mr Wickremesinghe has insisted to party seniors loyal to him that he would not step down as party leader as demanded by the faction backing Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. 

Mr Wickremesinghe has told his loyalists that it is the party's Working Committee and not the Parliamentary Group who can appoint a new leader for the party. As such, he has dismissed the unofficial vote taken by the Premadasa faction at the end of last night's meeting as pointless. 

He has further noted that as per the party Constitution, for there to be a change in the leadership, the Working Committee must appoint a new leader or the incumbent leader has to resign.