Saturday, November 19, 2005
Will Ranil Resign? |
The gossip about Sirikotha is that Ranil is going to hand in his papers on Monday. What remains to be seen is if the UNP accepts his resignation. Plans are being made for a press conference on Monday by the office of the Opposition Leader.
Though a lot of people have said that Ranil should quit as the leader of the UNP now that he has lost two consecutive Presidential elections, the main problem is that there is no clear person within the UNP who could replace Ranil as the leader of the party. If the UNP does decide to accept Ranil's resignation then there is going to be a serious power struggle as to who is going to lead the party.
While many believe that Karu Jayasuriya should be the one to lead the party, Karu has shown no clear intention of taking the party into his hands. KAru Jayasuriya is generally seen as one of the most expemplery leaders of the UNP having won elections in Colombo consecutively without ever having resorted to violence, or even massive poster campaigns. I'm not saying that the UNP is thug-free. They do have their fair share of people who believe wholeheartedly in ballot stuffing and opponent beating, but Karu, so far, has not been one of them.
1. Karu and Ranil at a rally
2. Karu as Mayor of Colombo
But if not Karu then who is it going to be?
Both Naveen Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa, thought bright young leaders with relatively clean records (particularly Sajith, who ran a very clean campaign against Mahinda's thugs in Hambantota) but they are both too young and inexperienced to give leadership to a party like the UNP.
Ravi Karunanayake, Bandula Gunawardene, Tissa Attanayake and several others also perhaps harbor hopes of becoming the next leader of the UNP, but I don't think any one of them are going to get it. But maybe the UNP does decide to do something stupid. The UNP is known to do stupid push-the-self-destruct-button kinda things.
Though a lot of people have said that Ranil should quit as the leader of the UNP now that he has lost two consecutive Presidential elections, the main problem is that there is no clear person within the UNP who could replace Ranil as the leader of the party. If the UNP does decide to accept Ranil's resignation then there is going to be a serious power struggle as to who is going to lead the party.
While many believe that Karu Jayasuriya should be the one to lead the party, Karu has shown no clear intention of taking the party into his hands. KAru Jayasuriya is generally seen as one of the most expemplery leaders of the UNP having won elections in Colombo consecutively without ever having resorted to violence, or even massive poster campaigns. I'm not saying that the UNP is thug-free. They do have their fair share of people who believe wholeheartedly in ballot stuffing and opponent beating, but Karu, so far, has not been one of them.
1. Karu and Ranil at a rally
2. Karu as Mayor of Colombo
But if not Karu then who is it going to be?
Both Naveen Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa, thought bright young leaders with relatively clean records (particularly Sajith, who ran a very clean campaign against Mahinda's thugs in Hambantota) but they are both too young and inexperienced to give leadership to a party like the UNP.
Ravi Karunanayake, Bandula Gunawardene, Tissa Attanayake and several others also perhaps harbor hopes of becoming the next leader of the UNP, but I don't think any one of them are going to get it. But maybe the UNP does decide to do something stupid. The UNP is known to do stupid push-the-self-destruct-button kinda things.
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LOL@kesbewa. Mahinda becomes the prez. Karu becomes the UNP leader. How nice. Has anyone noticed which schools they are from? |
Can someone point to where in the constitution it states that only a buddhist is allowed to be the president ? I haven't been able to find it but I haven't read the whole thing ? The constitution including the ammendments is available here |
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