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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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Cautions President against deal with UNP SLFPers call for snap poll by Our Political Correspondent Parliamentarians and activists of her own party, the SLFP, are now pressing President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to abandon the talks with the UNF Government for a power-sharing deal and go for a snap general election. At a lengthy meeting with the President on Thursday, they argued that Presidential control of the peace process was essential to prevent a division of the country and, therefore, an election was needed to regain that control, the Sunday Observer learns. Top level sources at the Presidential Secretariat indicated that the President had given a serious hearing to these representations by party stalwarts, although no decisions were arrived at on any immediate change in current policy. SLFPers at Thursday's meeting had argued that although Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had seemingly accepted the President's proposals for an inter-party agreement on cohabitation after a two-month delay, it was very unlikely that an agreement would be reached at tomorrow's meeting of the Mano-Malik committee. Party leaders reportedly alleged that the last minute change of stance of the Prime Minister was not "genuine". They claimed that a strong section of the UNP had advised the Prime Minister to accept the proposals of the President at this juncture as there was no alternative to avoid a defeat at the next general election. The majority of the SLFP MPs and other party seniors attending the meeting are understood to have urged the President to abandon moves to go along with the UNF Government at this juncture because they claimed that the PM's offer was nothing but a desperate attempt to continue in power. Speakers at the meeting had pointed out that the President's proposals for an inter-party agreement was submitted to the Mano-Malik Committee two months ago. But the UNP had rejected it from the beginning and had insisted that the Defence Ministry and the control of the armed forces be handed back to the Prime Minister. In doing so the PM had overlooked and rejected the mandate given to President at the 1999 Presidential Election. The UNP was not prepared to accept the fact that the country had given a dual mandate to the President and the Prime Minister. The SLFP MPs reportedly told President Kumaratunga that they wanted to see the peace process taken forward as envisaged by the President, which would ensure the territorial integrity of the Sri Lankan State and avoid a division of the country. |
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