Lankan President and UNF leaders meet end without any clear solution

The meeting of Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena with leaders of United National Front (UNF) last night ended positively but without any clear solution to resolve the political crisis.

A UNF leader said the meeting ended with salient progress pending finalization and another meeting will be held on Sunday. Another leader termed the meeting as positive. Earlier, President met the members of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) last evening where it was decided to take the issue of release of political prisoners on Monday.

TNA spokesman and MP M.A.Sumanthiran said President told them that he would like to see Parliament approving a motion calling him to appoint a new Prime Minister on Wednesday when it meets again. He said President also told them that it has become clear that new Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa currently does not have a majority in Parliament especially after motions that have been approved by Parliament during past few days.

Sources said President favoured a leadership change in UNF led by ousted Prime minister Ranil Wickremsinghe but both coalitions impressed upon him to accept the majority support for Wickremsinghe. Both meetings were delayed as President attended a public function with new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa where hundreds of appointment letters were handed over to welfare officers. Rajapaksa said in an interview that he would await the Supreme Court ruling next week to decide on the next course of action to be taken.

He asserted that he will show majority at the right time. Meanwhile, parliament passed another motion yesterday to suspend expenditure by ministers of new government. The motion in parliament was passed by 122 MPs of UNF, TNA and another political party voting for it while MPs supporting Mr. Rajapaksa continued to boycott the session.