The all Buddhist Monk party, the JHU or the Heritage Party, said that the forthcoming presidential election in this Indian ocean island is a referendum against moves to make Sri Lanka a federal republic.

The national organizer of the JHU Champaka Ranawaka told reporters here Wednesday that international forces are attempting to make Sri Lanka a federal republic in the guise of finding a solution to the armed separatist conflict.

The JHU on Tuesday announced that they would back the ruling party candidate the incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse at the presidential poll.

Ranawaka said Rajapakse had agreed to the JHU demand to preserve the unitary character of Sri Lanka when finding a solution to the conflict.

He stressed that Rajapakse had also agreed to the demands such as disarming of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels prior to negotiations and that he would disregard the minority Tamil claim for a traditional homeland in the north and east regions.

Rajapakse's leader, the incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga, had mooted a federal solution to the northeast crisis and the idea was endorsed in Oslo Norway in 2003 when the Tamil Tigers agreed to probe a possible federal solution.

The JHU demands that Rajapakse incorporate all their demands in his election manifesto as he had agreed with them on Tuesday.

Failure to do so would see JHU fielding its own candidate, Ranawaka stressed.

Source: Xinhua