Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena yesterday said that one of the main constituent parties of the recently formed United National Alliance (UNA) would soon switch its allegiance to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Addressing the press at the Information Department, Minister Abeywardena said that this would take place before the next election.

Although parliamentary elections were scheduled to take place by April next year, the government would explore other options, he said. The possibility of a presidential election preceding parliamentary polls or both big elections being held on the same day could not be ruled out, the Minister said.

Led by the UNP, the UNA comprises several political parties, including the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Democratic People’s Front, led by Rauff Hakeem and Mano Ganeshan, respectively.

Emphasising that the UNA posed no threat and therefore caused no anxiety to the ruling coalition, Minister Abeywardena said that the so-called alliance was nothing but a group of saboteurs bent on disrupting normalcy ahead of the coming elections and had even failed to attract a single new ally.

He said that SLMC leader Hakeem, who had been with the UNP for some time, could not be considered a new ally. The only new face was that of SLFP dissident Mangala Samaraweera, MP, he said.

He categorised the majority of UNA constituents as three wheeler parties whereas the SLFP-led UPFA comprised 18 parties. The UPFA had also the support of 14 other parties, he said.