Don’t blame me for National List appointments: Susil Premajeyantha

 

Former United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) General Secretary Susil Premajayantha emphasized yesterday that he was not involved nor consulted when selecting the party’s National List (NL) nominees for appointment to parliament.

He said as such it was unfair for the UPFA’s constituent parties or defeated UPFA members not appointed to parliament on the national list to criticize him.

Mr. Premajayantha said the enjoining order preventing him from functioning as UPFA General Secretary issued on August 14 was still valid and that it was not fair to criticize him without knowing the real situation.

“What the UPFA constituent parties should have done was not to blame me for their defeat but to do everything possible to have the enjoining order against me removed. Many of the constituent partners must realize that they would have not got this result if they had not contested on the UPFA ticket. I am disappointed to have been maliciously accused without the proper grounds for doing so,” he said.

Mr. Premajayantha said he tried hard to keep the UPFA intact and unfortunately, the political parties which won seats are the ones criticising me without talking about the benefits they got by affiliating with the UPFA.

He said the UPFA had not been faced by such problems in the past with regard to national list appointments but on this occasion the enjoining order the election results had led to unexpected difficulties cropping up.

Meanwhile, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa has threatened legal action against Mr. Premajayantha for not nominating a NFF candidate to parliament from the UPFA national list.