Major showdown averted

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday agreed to shed her powers to sack parliament, avoiding a major showdown with the government, political sources said.

Kumaratunga had a two-hour closed-door meeting with her arch political rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and agreed on a compromise to clip her wings, the sources said.

"The president climbed down on her insisting that no piece-meal constitutional amendments should be brought," the source said.

"She wanted to retain the power to sack parliament if and when the ruling party loses its majority. The premier has agreed to it. Her power to otherwise sack parliament will be removed."

Under the present constitution, Kumaratunga has the executive power to dissolve parliament after a newly-elected government completes one year out of its six-year term.

She had earlier hinted that she may sack parliament and call snap elections anytime after December 5 - a year after Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) won parliamentary elections.

The government said this had a destabilising effect on the country and on an ongoing peace bid with Tamil Tiger rebels.

As a compromise, the ruling United National Front (UNF) coalition dropped a controversial move to permit members of parliament a "conscience vote" on matters of national importance.

The vote was mooted by the government in a bid to obtain the magical two-thirds majority that is required to change important legislation like amendments to the constitution.

The UNF government sees a series of such laws as necessitated to clip Kumaratunga's powers and to give greater autonomy to the minority Tamils in the north and east.

The "conscience vote" bill was to replace a "cross-over" bill earlier contemplated, which quickly ran into opposition from the fragile Muslim Congress leadership fearing defections.

The Congress is an important coalition partner of the UNF administration.

The "conscience vote" bill was to accompany the 19th amendment to the constitution which had sought to strip Kumaratunga of exclusive rights to dissolve parliament after December 5, a year after the last general elections.

But it was also to be linked to voting on matters of national importance, which would be decided by an all-party national priorities committee of parliament.

The UNF has a wafer-thin majority in the 225-seat House and must rely on at least 20 members from Kumaratunga's Peoples Alliance to reach the two-thirds of 150.

At a high-level meeting between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and PA's former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in an effort to reach consensus, Kadirgamar had argued that the "conscience vote" bill would pave the way for one-party rule and see the dismantling of the parliamentary system practiced in Sri Lanka since pre-independence in 1948.

Kadirgamar, the Oxford educated barrister widely respected by both sides of parliament said that given today's political climate and what has been going on in recent years with parliamentarians being bribed with monies and portfolios, the "conscience vote" would end up as an "MPs for hire" bill.

Wickremesinghe has pointed out that the "conscience vote" bill was a bona fide effort to get parliamentarians to work together rather than work on parochial party-lines.

A top PA leader said that supporting the 19th amendment would help them to keep the party intact as there was a danger of their legislators defecting to the government side if the president resisted the proposed legislative moves.