The much-awaited election announcement, expected at yesterday’s Cabinet press briefing did not materialise, with the government simply saying that it was prepared for any poll and President Mahinda Rajapaksa would announce his decision shortly.

"The President has two more years of his tenure left. He will make an announcement soon with regard to the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary Elections," Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said. "We are ready for any Poll and are confident of winning. The UPFA is the strongest political alliance in the country today."

The UNP, he said, was so bankrupt that it could not even present a Presidential nominee of its own and was in the hunt for a "common candidate."

The time had come for the rank and file in the UNP to join the government and strengthen the hands of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, because their party was up for dissolution, Yapa said.

The UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had, he alleged, handed over a part of the country to the LTTE, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa had resisted many forces, in winning the war.