By Skandha Gunasekara and Tharumalee Silva The signing of the proposed alliance headed by the United National Front (UNF) would go ahead tomorrow (5) as planned, despite minority parties refusing to sign the deal. Minority parties have declined the invitation to join the UNF-led alliance until a decision is taken on who would be fielded as its presidential candidate. Leader of the National Union of Workers and member of the Tamil Progressive Allaince (TPA), Minister of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development Palani Digambaram stressed this point when speaking with The Sunday Morning. “First, we must know who the presidential candidate will be if we are to join this alliance. Only then could we go ahead and sign the agreement.” He said the presidential candidate must be favorable to all the parties in the alliance. “The selecting of the presidential candidate must be done as a group. It must be a collective decision.” At the time of writing, Minister Digambaram was adamant that the agreement would not be signed on Monday unless a candidate was decided upon. Meanwhile, Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Minister of City Planning, Water Supply, and Higher Education Rauff Hakeem said that his party first needed to decide among themselves whether or not to join the alliance. “The party high command will meet to deliberate the matter and come to a final decision,” he said, noting that he was aware that there had been some confusion regarding the constitution of the alliance. However, General Secretary of the United National Party (UNP) and Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said that discussions were held yesterday (3) and would be held today (4) with the minority parties regarding the alliance. “We are holding discussions with the minority parties on Saturday and Sunday and will iron out any issues. We want everyone on board when we launch the alliance on Monday.” He asserted that the signing ceremony would take place on Monday as scheduled. “We will definitely have the signing ceremony. Everything is ready for us to launch our grand alliance.”