Sri Lankan opposition warns of people's power to force presidential election

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) said Tuesday it will stage more demonstrations of people's power to force the government to hold a presidential election by the year's end.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the GNP, made the remarks in a massive rally of his party at the end of a 11-day protest walk spanning about 160 kilometers from the deep south of Devinuwara to the capital Colombo.

Wickremesinghe said that sovereignty of the nation lies with the people and that the incumbent president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and her government had no right to decide on the holding of the next presidential election in the country.

The "Janabala Meheyuma" or the operation people's power was kicked off by the UNP on July 2 to highlight the rising cost of living and the government's inefficient handling of the tsunami relief effort and to force the holding of the presidential election.

Tens of thousands of UNP supporters entered the city on the last day of its march before holding a rally at central Colombo's town hall area.

Wickremesinghe told the gathering that this march was just one and that he would organize many more if needed to give the people the chance to elect a new leader for the country.

Kumaratunga's government and the opposition UNP are involved in a dispute over the date for the next presidential election.

The UNP insists that the election must be held by December this year -- the end of Kumaratunga's six year term from 1999.

But the government maintains that it falls due only in 2006, 12 years from 1994, the year in which Kumaratunga was first elected to office.

Source: Xinhua