Three dissident UNP politicians from Sabaragamuwa on Sunday pledged support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the forthcoming Presidential elections, saying that Rajapaksa was the better candidate who had provided the leadership to defeat the LTTE and liberate the country from terrorism.

The dissidents were former Sabaragamuwa Chief Minister Jayatillake Podinilame, Kegalle Urban Council Chairman Jude Rukantha Perera and former Pradeshya Sabha Chairman N. Rupasena.

Addressing a news conference in Colombo, the three members said that they have not left the UNP, but would support Rajapaksa’s candidature.

Podinilame said that he didn’t accept the UNP-JVP alliance at all as the JVP had been a murderous faction which was responsible for the deaths of a number of UNP members and civilians during the 1988-89 insurrection and the scars caused by them have not healed yet.

"This alliance would never succeed as their ideologies and thinking are poles apart", he said.

Responding to a question that there are allegations that the three of them who were critical of the UPFA in the past and were now supporting Rajapaksa in order to avoid a probe on their corrupt practices, they denied the charge.

Answering a question that they were now supporting the ruling party because they felt that the UNP is now in disarray and will not be returned to power in the next few years unless by a miracle, Jude Rukantha Perera nodded his head.