President meets civil society groups to discuss current issues; secret revealed – a UNP minister ordered STF security for Sajin Vaas

Prime Ministerial candidate? There is little doubt he would be the obvious choice with other would-be contenders having lesser credentials.

Such a move, no doubt, would be a windfall for his political arch-rival Mahinda Rajapaksa. It may come as an incentive to form his own party, an idea he has been toying with. That he is scoring marks with little or no positive action on his part due to people’s economic woes is no secret. The latest is the closure of shops in different towns protesting over VAT. It is known that opposition groups have been behind the campaign. The latest this week was in Gampaha. Small traders countrywide are the source of not only essential commodities to lower income groups but a blessing to them, for they would sell even small quantities, unlike supermarkets. An example is how they sold milk powder by the spoon to those who could not afford a packet. That in one stroke the Government has alienated most of them has come as manna from heaven for the opposition. Issues are being delivered on the platter to them and there seems no strategy to counter, not even at the party level of both the SLFP and the UNP. That also has bad forebodings for local government elections if they are held next year.

There are a number of issues that would have to be overcome before the SLFP could push its demand for urgent electoral reforms. Firstly, the party would have to formulate its own concept – how many to be elected through the First-Past-the-Post (FPP) system and how many through Proportional Representation. An important issue would be over how many members should be in Parliament. Once, these are in shape, the next phase for the SLFP would be to talk to its partner, the UNP. The latter’s views have to be obtained to reach a consensus, and even more importantly, to win its accord to present it in Parliament ahead of the new Constitution.

The UNP’s position was articulated by its leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said he was aware of different views within. He said the Steering Committee involved in the Constitution making process was studying the different views expressed by political parties. Those would be discussed and debated. “Ideally, it would be better to have the three elements – electoral reforms, devolution proposals and the change in executive presidency together,” Premier Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times.

Different smaller political parties hold