‘UNP can correct its shortcomings’

The United National Party (UNP) came second in the Local Government elections, but it can correct its shortcomings and go forward. The UNP received 33 percent of the total votes cast and the SLFP received 13 percent. People who received 13 percent votes cannot decide who should be the leader of the UNP, which received 33 percent of the votes, Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake said.

He was addressing the newly elected UNP members of the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council led by Chandana Lal Karunaratne at the Municipal Council after they took their oaths before him on March 23.

"A few parliamentarians cannot dictate terms to the UNP and appoint its leadership. No one will be allowed to dilute the UNP till people like Sajith Preamdasa and myself are in it. We will forge links with people and march forward. We, however, have to remedy our shortcomings expeditiously, Dissanayake said.

Dissanayake said it was a happy day for them since they had been able to set up the administration in several local councils including Nuwara Eliya and Kotmale. The UNP may set up administration in Hanguranketha and Walapone as well, he Minister said.

Minister Dissanayake said that as the UNP district leader in Nuwara Eliya, he was not happy about the UNP's overall performance countrywide during the local election.

It was more so because a powerful party like the UNP with a 70-year-old history had been beaten to second place by a fledgling party like the SLPP. The reasons adduced for the UNP's poor performance were that it failed to look after its supporters, resolve fertiliser problems, and provide jobs to party supporters. The other was that it had neglected its Sinhala-Buddhist vote base, he said. The Minister said that unless they corrected these shortcomings within the next two or three months, they would not be able to advance as a party.

They had already conveyed this message to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and briefed him on the need to re-organise the party, Dissanayake said.

Minister Dissanayake said that unlike the SLPP, the UNP had promising second level leaders like Sajith, Akila, Sagala, Harsha, Eran and few others and some duties and responsibilities in the party should be vested in them without restricting them to their ministry posts.

"The party needs a full time General Secretary who would work round the clock like the late Gamini Athukorale, who could be contacted on the phone round the clock. Electoral organisers of the UNP should be given more powers without making them co-organisers," he said.

Dissanayake said certain statements made by the President too impacted badly on the UNP performance at the elections. "If both the SLFP and UNP jointly contested under the 'Swan' symbol, they would have emerged victorious. The two government leaders failed to consider that strategy, the Minister said.