The United People’s Freedom Party (UPFA) opposes any government with Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, a member of the UPFA said on the condition of anonymity.
Therefore we looked into the possibility of the United National Party (UNP) forming a single-party government under the present balance of power within the parliament.
As per the results of the 2015 General Election, the UNP controls 106 seats in the Parliament while the UPFA received 95 seats. Out of the total UPFA seats, 52 are aligned with the Joint Opposition while 43 support the unity government of the SLFP and the UNP.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party, has 16 seats in the Parliament and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has 6 seats.
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) lay claim to one MP seat each.
If the UNP is to form a single-party government it would require the support of a minimum of 6 more MPs.
Attempts to ascertain the SLFP or UPFA’s stance on this by Ada Derana have failed.
