Tyronne Fernando resigns from UNP to join UPFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 16:35 GMT]
Mr.Tyronne Fernando, who was a parliamentarian of the United National Party from the Moratuwa electorate and Foreign Minister in the former United National Front government, Tuesday sent in his resignation letter to the leader of the UNP, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe. Leaders of United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are reported to have approached Mr. Fernando to nominate him for the post of Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council, political sources said.

The life term of the Western Provincial Council is to end next month and the election will be held in June to elect a new administration, sources said

Mr.Fernando, who did not contest the regular poll and instead expected to be nominated as a national list MP of the UNP, sent a three-page letter to Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe soon after the April 2nd poll, expressing his dissatisfaction over the UNP's decision not to nominate him on the national list of the party.

Since then, he had been toying with the idea of resigning from the UNP and joining the UPFA, political sources said.