Sri Lanka's Supreme Court announced here Friday that the country's next presidential election must be held within 2005, clearing up the long debate over the date for the election.

The unanimous judgment by a five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Sarath N Silva came in response to a case filed by the all Buddhist Monk party, the JHU or the Heritage Party to seek a determination from the court.

In terms of the Presidential Election Act, election chief Dayananda Dissanayake is now required to announce a date for the next Presidential election any time between Oct. 22 and Nov. 22.

Sri Lankan political parties have been engaged in a long winding debate over the date for the election with incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga maintaining that the election should only be held in 2006.

President Kumaratunga has argued that the left-over year from her first term should mean she could stay in power until late 2006.

She has also stressed that her term runs until the end of 2006 as she is entitled for 12 years from 1994, her first appointment to the post of executive president.

Nevertheless, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) argues that her second term, which began in December 1999 when she called a snap presidential election a year early in late 1999, ends in December 2005 and the election must be held by the end of this year.

The UNP ran a massive public agitation campaign to have the election held this year with a hugely attended walk from deep south to the capital Colombo, followed up by a public petition campaign during July.

Dissanayake, the commissioner of elections, was responding to a petition filed by the all Buddhist Monk party, the JHU or the Heritage Party seeking a court determination on the date for the next presidential election.

Dissanayake said on Aug. 15 that he was now proceeding in terms of the section 31(3) of the constitution to conduct the next presidential election.

The elections commissioner submitted to court last week and said he would recognize President Kumaratunga's swearing in as the president for her second term in December 1999 in making a decision on the date for the next election.

Hours before the Supreme Court decision, Kumaratunga's office said she would only retire in 2006.

She would construct a private residence "after retirement from the presidency in 2006," it said in a statement, indicating that she was banking on continuing in office for another year.

She had turned down a pension but accepted the cabinet's gift of a large piece of state land for her retirement home, it said.

Kumaratunga, who is in her second term, cannot contest again and she has already named her Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse as her candidate.

The UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe declared his candidature as early as January this year.

With the court decision Kumaratunga's term would now end in December this year.

Source: Xinhua