The United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have reached a final consensus over forming a National Government, UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrama said in a statement today (26).

“The United National Party during the election campaigns of the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections consistently stated that the entire Parliament would comprise the new government thus creating a new political culture and a system of a civilized form of governance.

We also stated that we would form a national government at least for a period of two years to achieve this goal. Accordingly, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed recently with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. 
We came to an agreement subsequent to the friendly and comprehensive discussions held with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to form a national government.

The prime objective of the two parties is to serve the people. We joined hands to nurture the future of our nation without clinging on to our traditional political ideologies. Our prime concern has been to elevate the motherland to a higher echelon of development and not about ministerial portfolios and other perquisites.

  
In this exercise both parties had to make sacrifices. All our sacrifices were made with the intention of creating a better future for our country.
We are committed to work devotedly towards creating a new country within a period of 60 months through a new Cabinet and a new Parliament,” the statement said.

It has been agreed to offer several top ministries including the Ministry of Highways, the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Irrigation, and Ministry of Samurdhi to the SLFP, a source said.