The UNP (Democratic Group) in the Rajapaksa administration will shortly cease to exist. Of nearly 20 MPs in the group, all have now obtained SLFP membership and received appointments as electoral organisers except Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. H. Mohammed and Supplementary Crops Development Minister Dharmadasa Banda.

Addressing the press at the Information Department yesterday-July 1, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, also of the UNP D Group said that they would contest the next parliamentary elections on the government ticket. He declined to comment on the National Freedom Front (NFF) receiving two ministerial portfolios and one of them at the expense of Minister Milinda Moragoda. He emphasised that the President was free to make ministerial appointments as he pleased.

A source close to Moragoda told The Island that the minister had already indicated his readiness to accept any other portfolio. Speculation is that NFF MP Nandana Gunatilleke will succeed Moragoda as the Tourism Minister.