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Secret ceremony gives CBK presidency till 2006
By Ranjith Ananda Jayasinghe
A hitherto undisclosed swearing-in ceremony of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on November 11, 2000, by Chief Justice Sarath N. de Silva will enable her to remain in office until the same date in 2006. Accordingly, the next presidential election is not due until January 2007.

The Sunday Times has learnt that this swearing-in ceremony has been kept a closely guarded secret. Taking part in the ceremony were several officials in the President's Office led by former President's Secretary Kusumsiri Balapatabendi.
The news that she will remain in office for another three years instead of ending her tenure in 2005, as commonly believed, will add an entirely new dimension to the country's political firmament.

Political observers say its immediate impact would be on the ongoing crisis talks over cohabitation between the United National Front Government and President Kumaratunga. This is in the immediate wake of her takeover of the portfolios of defence, interior and mass communications.

The 1978 Constitution, the brainchild of late President J. R. Jayewardene, permits a Sri Lankan citizen to contest the post of President only twice. President Kumaratunga first contested for the Presidency in November 1994. Hence, her term would have ended in November 2000.

However, she called Presidential elections a year ahead, in December 1999. By this time she had only completed five years of her six-year term. Whilst campaigning for the Presidential polls, President Kumaratunga escaped an assassination attempt by Tiger guerrillas. She was injured in one eye.

Soon after being elected at the December 1999 polls, President Kumaratunga, was sworn in by Chief Justice Sarath N. de Silva. In accordance with this, her term of office was to have lapsed on December 2, 2005.

A second swearing in took place on November 11, 2000 at a private unpublicised ceremony. No formal statement was made to the country thereafter to inform the public about the swearing-in. Her legal advisors have consequently opined that she could now remain in office until November 11, 2006 -- an opinion challenged by others.

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