The Election Commission has gazetted the name of United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the party’s one and only National List Member of Parliament.
The extraordinary gazette notification was published today (June 18) by the Chairman of the Election Commission Nimal G. Punchihewa and the members of the election body, S.B. Divaratne, M.M. Mohamed, K.P.P. Pathirana and Jeevan Thiagarajah.
Last month, the Working Committee of the UNP unanimously decided to appoint the former prime minister to the party’s National List seat in parliament.
The UNP later informed the Election Commission regarding the appointment to their National List MP seat. Accordingly, a letter informing of the UNP’s decision to name the former prime minister to occupy the vacant National List MP seat was handed over to the election body two days ago.
Wickremesinghe was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1977, and had been re-elected continuously until 2020. The 72-year-old had served as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on three occasions.
After 43 years in parliament, he was defeated for the first time at the 2020 general election while the UNP failed to win a single seat in parliament. However, the party did manage to secure one National List seat.
