No deal on UNP-led political alliance for Sri Lanka prez polls

Colombo: The talks between allies of the United National Party (UNP), main party in Sri Lanka's ruling coalition, to form a broader alliance which will contest the presidential election later this year have ended without an agreement, a party member said on Sunday.

Sri Lanka has been wracked by political divisions since an unprecedented constitutional crisis last year, when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked UNP leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe was reinstated in December after the intervention of the Supreme Court, but the govt remains deeply divided. The allies of the UNP met Saturday to finalise the proposed Democratic National Alliance (DNA). The allies agreed on certain aspects of the DNA's constitution such as which party should hold the key position of its general secretary.