UNP-SLFP joint strategising for future Parliament

by our Political Correspondent

The top leadership of the two main political parties in government, the SLFP and UNP, are currently in close consultation in moves to clarify leadership positions and begin strategising for the planned parliamentary elections later this year, the Sunday Observer learns. Even as cabinet ministers and their teams work overtime to implement the ‘100-day program’, senior party officials are already engaged in talks to strengthen and build their parties to prepare for the complex challenge of parliamentary polls.

Sources close to both party leaderships said that the government was aware of the totally new and unusual nature of the current coalition in power and was sensitive to public concerns about the coherence and stability of the multi-party, rainbow coalition and its new style of consultative politics.

“After a decade of decision-making concentrated in one person and his coterie, people are unused to a multi-stakeholder process and worry that decisions and planning will not keep pace with political dynamics and public needs,” one party official said.

As the remnants of the old United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, now in parliamentary opposition, make moves and postures to appear to politically threaten the National Unity government, both main parties are acting quickly to ensure that internal party mechanisms are fine-tuned to meet the electoral challenges.

Party sources pointed to the personal involvement of UNP Leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the high level talks with top Sri Lanka Freedom Party leaders both in the Governmental and Opposition sides of Parliament. It is understood that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga is also closely supporting these consultations in order to ensure that the SLFP overcomes current difficulties arising from inner tensions between old and new party leaderships.

Political analysts said that the participation of Mr. Wickremesinghe himself in these inter-party talks shows the UNP’s keen interest in ensuring that its main partner, the SLFP, is parallely re-building its dynamism.

They said that the currently more upbeat UNP wants it main partner in top gear that the intended future unity government post parliamentary elections can function with full public confidence.

“All major actors in the country, ranging from the business community to the powerful trade unions and civil society and other pro-democracy lobbies that supported us in the recent elections for a genuine change, want us to continue this national coordination that long term recovery is ensured.

Sources in the broad coalition of civil society groups that had supported the National Unity campaign at the recent presidential election said that certain prominent personalities were also aiding in these inter-party talks.

‘We want the unity coalition to remain strong and go beyond the 100-day program to ensure a stable country in the long term. Post parliamentary elections, there are major national issues to be resolved and only a strong, unified national leadership can do that,” one senior activist told the Sunday Observer.