Sri Lanka heads for snap general polls

COLOMBO, DECEMBER 26: SRI Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is set to call a snap parliamentary election after her win in a president...

COLOMBO, DECEMBER 26: SRI Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is set to call a snap parliamentary election after her win in a presidential poll last week, political analysts said Sunday. The presidential election was held 10 months ahead of schedule and a general election hot on the heels of her victory could give the ruling party a psychological boost, analysts said.

The term of the present parliament ends in August but Kumaratunga has powers to dissolve the 225-member legislative Assembly and call an early election, as she hinted before her election Tuesday. Kumaratunga won 51 percent of the vote, down from the record 62 percent she won in 1994. Analysts say the government could call snap polls to arrest the declining electoral fortunes of the ruling People8217;s Alliance. The ruling party, in theory, has only a one-seat majority in the 225-member Assembly and lacks the mandatory two-thirds majority to make promised sweeping constitutional reforms.

However, senior minister Mangala Samaraweera said twoweeks before Kumaratunga8217;s re-election that she was seeking a mandate to scrap the country8217;s constitution and end the long Tamil separatist war. Samaraweera said Kumaratunga will also adopt a new electoral system through the present parliament or through a constituent Assembly. In 1995 she unveiled a radical peace plan aimed at turning the country into a de facto federal state but the main Opposition and the Tamil rebels rejected it.

Two years later she announced her intention to hold a nation-wide referendum to adopt a constitution aimed at ending the country8217;s dragging ethnic war after the Opposition refused to support her in parliament. The ruling People8217;s Alliance came to power in August 1994 promising to scrap the all-powerful presidency introduced by the former United National Party but it was unable to do so because of a lack of parliamentary majority.

Kumaratunga is currently undergoing treatment in London for the shrapnel injuries suffered during an assassination attempt just three days beforelast week8217;s elections. Medical experts in Britain have, meanwhile, ruled out surgery on Kumaratunga for shrapnel injuries, the government said Sunday. The injury to Kumaratunga8217;s right eye is receiving quot;further attention and will be under constant review,quot; the government said in a statement issued here after she left for London on Wednesday. Kumaratunga narrowly escaped assassination when a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated explosives at her final election campaign meeting here on December 18.

quot;The medical team of experts from Sri Lanka accompanying the President, in collaboration with the team of medical experts from London, has concluded she has made a remarkable recovery,quot; the statement said. quot;They have recommended that she could resume normal duties forthwith.quot;