Ranil should stay or go? 50-50 split among UNP MPs
About half of the UNP parliamentary group is supportive of a bid to influence UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to quit the leadership to pave the way for a general revamping of the party. In a brief interview with The Sunday Island, Ms Thalatha Atukorale, MP, expressed confidence that the leader would step down to facilitate the party to elect his successor without further delay.  "We aren’t pushing for anyone and there is absolutely no hidden agenda. We simply want to revitalize the party to take on the dictatorial Rajapaksa regime," she said.

Asked to leave Madhu Shrine: Dr JJ complains to HRC
UNP parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena has complained to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka that while he was praying at the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, he was asked to leave the sacred precincts by the army. In a petition submitted to the Commission through attorney-at-law Priyalal Sirisena instructed by Desmond Fernando, P.C., Dr. Jayawardena says that Major General Lalith Daulagalla had asked him to leave immediately as the Defence Secretary had not granted permission for him to stay in the Shrine.