He said, “It is the diehard UNP membership that will name the next Presidential candidate later this year and nobody can prevent the UNP from securing the largest landslide victory.” “It was in February 1989 that H G Sirisena and I were first elected to Parliament and I am most grateful to the organisers and the people of Matara for giving me an opportunity to rekindle memories. Viewing the photographs taken thirty years ago brings me joy as well as sadness. The joy is that by using my political connections I developed Matara to a great extent in the past three decades and I am confident that I can do much more for Matara in the future,” he said.