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Sri Lanka's Leftist Party Agrees Conditional Support to Govt
COLOMBO, September 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Sri Lanka's leftist party JVP or People's Liberation Front said on Saturday that they would extend their conditional support to salvage President Chandrika Kumaratunga's minority government.
The JVP said they were waiting for the president until Sunday to announce it would cancel the October 18 referendum on a new constitution and reconvene the parliament.
The JVP demands also include the establishment of five independent commissions on judiciary, election, public service, police and media and the reduction of cabinet from 44 to 20 members.
"If the government does not make the announcements we will consider that the government does not have a genuine interest in implementing our proposals," the JVP said in a statement.
The government agreed to conditions set by JVP during their four and half hour talks which ended at midnight on Friday.
The parliamentary group of the ruling People's Alliance party will meet on Sunday to discuss the conditional support extended by JVP.
The JVP's 10 seats in the 225-member Parliament would help Kumaratunga's PA government, which has only 109 seats following the withdrawal of the main Muslim Congress party in June.
The government resumed talks with the JVP after talks with the main opposition United National Party (UNP) failed on Tuesday over the issue of sharing power.
Kumaratunga suspended parliament on July 10 for two months in a bid to avoid an almost certain defeat of her PA government in a vote of no-confidence tabled by UNP. She also called for a referendum on a new constitution which was originally scheduled on August 21.
According to the constitution, the president has the power to dissolve parliament only one year after the last general election which was held on October 10 last year.
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