As the Rajapakse Presidency pushes ahead with its impeachment of the Chief Justice, UNP and Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe pulled off his own coup within the UNP. He convened a party convention which met on December 1^st, amended its constitution to ensure that the UNP elects its leader only once in six years and not annually as at present. He also succeeded in according to himself the right to appoint the all the office bearers in the Party, with some minimal concurrence of the UNP’s Working Committee. Essentially Ranil is now entrenched as UNP leader till 2018, till much after the next presidential and parliamentary elections are due. Right after his Party election, Ranil gave a speech to the party faithful at the convention, that now secure as Party Leader he wants to take on the Rajapakse regime. He vowed to ensure a UNP administration by 2014.

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