The United National Party and all parties of the United National Front unanimously decided to accept the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and support him to form a UNP government. 

The decision will be officially conveyed to President Maithripala Sirisena today or  tomorrow. 

They also decided to ask the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to leave the government, if they did not wish to accept Prime Minister's leadership.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and UNP Deputy Leader Minister Sajith Premadasa also said they would not accept the Prime Minister's post without the party's approval. This assurance ruled out the possibility of an internal coup within the party with the support of President Maithripala Sirisena who pushed for Prime minister Wickremesinghe's resignation. 

This will allow the UNP to form a government with its own, with a new Cabinet of 30 members and 40 State/ Deputy Ministers. 

The Prime Minister called all party leaders of the United National Front to Temple Trees for a special meeting at 6.30 pm. 

The meeting came in the wake of the Prime Minister's discussions with UNP back-benchers this morning, at Temple Trees, this morning. At the meeting, they decided to form an independent UNP government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister.