{"id":197093,"date":"2018-12-17T19:35:14","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=197093"},"modified":"2018-12-17T20:07:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T14:37:59","slug":"ranil-pledges-to-form-new-political-alliance-will-seek-wc-approval-for-new-party-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-pledges-to-form-new-political-alliance-will-seek-wc-approval-for-new-party-on-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil Pledges To Form New Political Alliance: Will Seek WC Approval For New Party On Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremesinghe\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/strong>, addressing the UNP really at Galle Face Green this evening, said a new political party &#8211; the National Democratic Front &#8211; would be registered with the aim of forming a broad political alliance to strengthen democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Wickremesinghe said at the UNP Working Committee meeting on Friday, he would seek approval from the UNP to form a alliance. He expressed confidence that his party would solemnly back the move.<\/p>\n<p>At a meeting held at Temple Trees after his swearing-in yesterday, Wickremesinghe told UNP seniors to &#8220;prepare for an election.&#8221; Although the Prime Minister did not specify which election would come first, many party seniors assumed that Wickremesinghe was talking about the Provincial Council elections.<\/p>\n<p>Wickremesinghe&#8217;s remark on forming a new political party is a sign that the UNP has plans to bring multiple political parties under a common umbrella to contest future elections.<\/p>\n<p>In his speech at the UNP demonstration today, Wickremesinghe urged the public to give him a two thirds majority in Parliament at the next election to abolish Executive Presidency.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want to abolish Executive Presidency without relying on anyone. The only way to do it is by securing a two thirds majority in Parliament, &#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Wickremesinghe also stated that his party would seek a solution to the national question based on the unitary status of the country.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fakilavirajk%2Fvideos%2F2716253655265935%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":190290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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