UNP's presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa has become "uncontactable" since early this week, several UNP MPs told Asian Mirror.

They confirmed that Premadasa did not respond to their repeated telephone calls.

Premadasa is also avoiding telephone calls from journalists.

Premadasa was expected to attend a meeting last evening with former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

However, Premadasa did not turn up for the meeting at the Speaker's residence and later sent a message saying he was "under the weather".

Speaker Jayasuriya today announced that he would recognize Wickremesinghe as the Opposition Leader in accordance with the parliamentary tradition.