Sri Lanka opposition party to suspend talks with government on constitutional reforms

Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Party has decided to call off the discussions with the government on constitutional reforms following the cross-over of two of its parliamentarians to ruling side.


Local media citing party sources said the recent discussions opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe had with President Mahinda Rajapaksa will not continue any further as the government is using the talks to draw opposition members to the government side to get the two-third majority in the parliament.
Prabha Ganeshan of Democratic People's Front and P. Digambaram of the National Workers Front met President Rajapaksa Thursday and extended their support to the government. Both MPs contested the general elections in April under the opposition alliance United National Front.
A UNP parliamentary group headed by Wickremasinghe met President Rajapaksa last month to discuss the constitutional amendments that are to be brought soon.
The President and the UNP leaders in the meeting agreed in principle to the need to abolish the Executive Presidency and create an Executive Prime Minister post that will be responsible to parliament.
With the cross-over of the two MPs, ruling party has secured 146 seats of the 225-member parliament and only 5 votes shy of a two-third majority.