Sri Lanka President, rival to clash as parliament opens

COLOMBO (AFP): Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who cemented his grip on power Wednesday, is set to clash with his arch-rival former army chief Sarath Fonseka when the new parliament opens this week.

 

 

Results of parliamentary elections showed Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance had secured 144 seats in the 225-member assembly in the April 8 vote. The final tallies were delayed due to a poll re-run on Tuesday in two constituencies where violence disrupted initial voting.

 

 

Rajapaksa’s coalition was left just short of the two-thirds majority required for the government to rewrite the constitution, which at present prevents him from standing again when his second term ends in 2016.

 

 

Attention now turns to the opening of the new parliament on Thursday, which opposition leader Fonseka, who is under military arrest and standing trial at a court martial, is due to attend.

 

 

Fonseka is to be allowed to attend parliament before being returned to detention after each session, government officials said.

 

 

Political observers believe Fonseka is likely to use his position in parliament to attack the president, who does not sit in the assembly, and air allegations of human rights abuses plaguing the government.

 

 

Rajapaksa and Fonseka fell out after they defeated the country´s Tamil Tigers rebels last May, with Fonseka unsuccessfully trying to unseat Rajapakse in presidential elections in January.

 

 

Fonseka was arrested soon after, but while in detention he won a seat in parliament.

His court martial, on charges of allegedly engaging in politics while in uniform and involvement in corrupt arms procurement, was adjourned on Tuesday for two weeks.

Fonseka denies all the accusations, saying they are a politically motivated attempt to silence him.

 

 

“Parliament allows Fonseka a public forum to present his grievances without any fetters,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, director of the Centre for Policy Alternative think-tank. “He can say whatever he wants. He can spill the beans.”

 

 

Rajapaksa’s elder brother Chamal is strongly tipped to be appointed Speaker when parliament opens, and if he accepts the post it would be the first time that brothers have held the two key positions.

 

 

The President’s son Namal, 24, enters parliament as the youngest lawmaker in Sri Lanka’s history, a record currently held by Rajapaksa senior, who was also 24 when he went to parliament in 1970.

 

 

The main opposition United National Party was trounced in this month’s parliamentary elections, winning just 60 seats, while the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, came third with 14.

 

 

Fonseka’s leftist Democratic National Alliance (DNA) party, which won seven seats in the assembly, says he will emerge as the main opposition leader.

“The government has been trying to block General Fonseka’s entry to parliament by keeping him under military custody for over three months,” DNA spokesman Anura Kumara Dissanayake said. “They have failed.”

 

 

The parliamentary election was held just two months after the presidential poll that returned Rajapaksa to power.

The two nationwide elections were the first since the defeat of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended decades of ethnic bloodshed that according to the United Nations claimed up to 100,000 lives.

 

 

Plantations minister D.M. Jayaratne, a close ally of Rajapaksa, was on Wednesday named as Prime Minister in the new parliament, a largely ceremonial role since Rajapaksa is both head of state and government. – (AFP)