Sri Lanka vote turns into referendum on peace plan

By Amal Jayasinghe

COLOMBO (AFP): Sri Lanka's upcoming national election is turning into a referendum on President Chandrika Kumaratunga's power-sharing plan to appease the country's Tamil separatists.

Kumaratunga has said she will implement her plan to turn the country into a de facto federal state within two months of re- election after the Oct. 10 polls.

The minority party Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, has said it fears the government may interpret any vote for it as an invitation to rewrite the constitution and adopt a federal charter.

"We want to warn the voters of this deception plan," JVP spokesman Wimal Weerawansa said. "They are trying to project the election as a referendum on dividing the country on ethnic lines. We are against it.

Kumaratunga wants to implement a new constitution which would devolve greater autonomy to the Tamils in the north.

But the ruling party was seriously embarrassed on Aug. 3 when they failed to muster the required two-thirds majority in the 225-member assembly in a vote on the proposal.

However, Kumaratunga vowed on national television in August to press ahead with the constitutional change.

It is a gamble fraught with political risk.

Hard-line minority parties are scrambling to attract opponents of Kumaratunga's plan.

The ultra nationalist Sihala Urumaya (SU) claims it is the only party working to ensure the unity of the country and accuses both the ruling party and the opposition UNP of trying to break up the nation.

"We are against the (political) package and we are taking the message to the people to vote for us to stop this package being implemented," SU leader S.L. Gunasekara said.

Buddhist monks, who command support among the 70-percent Buddhist population, are supportive of the SU, or the Sinhalese Heritage party, which hopes to win at least a handful of seats in the 225-member assembly.

Kumaratunga's new Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake is spearheading an offensive to appease the influential monks and drum up votes for the radical ethnic peace plan.

The prime minister's statement that the views of the Buddhist clergy will be consulted on any future devolution plan is also aimed at appeasing the extremist Sinhala nationalists.

"We are clearly having two problems," Wickremanayake said at the launch of the party's manifesto last month. "One is terrorism of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) which we must wipe out completely."

"Then we have the question of minority rights."

The LTTE is leading a drawn-out campaign for independence in the island's northeast. More than 60,000 people have been killed in fighting in the past two decades.

Whatever the outcome of next week's election, the all-powerful executive presidency may give way to a prime ministerial system, analysts said, noting that both main parties have promised to change the system.

The opposition UNP, which in 1978 introduced the presidential system, is promising to abolish it.

With the minority parties cashing in on the national split over potential political reform, many analysts believe Sri Lanka could end up with a hung parliament.

That could be a blow to Kumaratunga's peace bid which has already languished for five years with few takers.