{"id":147131,"date":"2015-07-08T17:43:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T12:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=147131"},"modified":"2015-07-08T17:43:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T12:13:08","slug":"muslim-council-wants-more-from-ranil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/muslim-council-wants-more-from-ranil\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Council Wants More From Ranil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Muslim+Council+of+Sri+Lanka&amp;x=12&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Muslim Council of Sri Lanka<\/span><\/a> has today urged the\u00a0leader of the United National Party to nominate at least three candidates to the districts of Kandy and Colombo, Two each for the districts of Kalutara, Kurunegala, Puttalam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Ranil-and-Hakeem.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-147133 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Ranil-and-Hakeem.gif\" alt=\"Ranil and Hakeem\" width=\"274\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a>Writing to the UNP leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremesinghe&amp;x=16&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a>, the Muslim Council has today said; &#8220;This will ensure that the majority of the Muslim votes in these areas will be cast in favour of the United National Party.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We publish below the letter in full;<\/p>\n<p>July 8th 2015<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Ranil Wickremesinge<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister and leader of the United National Party,<\/p>\n<p>No. 400, Siri kotha<\/p>\n<p>Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte<br \/>\nDear Hon. Prime Minister<\/p>\n<p><strong>RE: REPRESENTATION OF MUSLIMS IN THE UNP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Muslim communities have been loyal supporters and have been voting the United National Party overwhelmingly for decades. There is much concern amongst the community that their representation within the UNP has been reduced. This is mainly because the UNP is supposed to have made a decision to field only two Muslim candidates in predominantly Muslim dominated areas.<\/p>\n<p>Sir, you are well aware, the Muslim representation has been higher in the districts of Kandy, Colombo in previous governments. We are concerned that independent groups may come forward from the Muslim community and the Muslim vote could get further fragmented, thereby reducing the chances of even two members being elected from these districts.<\/p>\n<p>As such, we kindly urge you to kindly nominate at least three candidates to the districts of Kandy and Colombo, Two each for the districts of Kalutara, Kurunegala, Puttalam, etc. This will ensure that the majority of the Muslim votes in these areas will be cast in favour of the United National Party.<\/p>\n<p>We thank you for your kind consideration and look forward to working with your future government.<\/p>\n<p>Yours sincerely<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=N+M+Ameen&amp;x=10&amp;y=10\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">N M Ameen<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nPresident<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":147133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6980,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-sri-lanka-parliamentary-elections-2015","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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