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CBK-Ranil in crucial meeting today
In the shadow of the November 17 presidential election, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga meets Opposition leader and United National Party candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe today to discuss a string of crucial political issues.

Main among them is a common approach to the stalled peace process with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The two leaders are to explore avenues of forging a common southern standpoint for the peace process particularly after the presidential election.

The meeting assumes greater significance in the wake of common positions expressed both by President Kumaratunga and Mr. Wickremesinghe.
Both have declared they favoured a federal solution to the ethnic conflict and declared their support for the Post- Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS).

This is in marked contrast to the public declaration by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse that he was committed to a unitary Sri Lanka. In his manifesto officially released last Tuesday, he has also pledged to abolish the P-TOMS and instead introduce what he calls a Jaya Lanka programme. Details of this programme have not been spelt out.

Today’s meeting comes against the backdrop of Ms Kumaratunga’s declaration to continue to remain as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) even after the November 17 presidential election.

Earlier, she had wanted to cease being the party leader. Adding importance is Kumaratunga’s move to launch a campaign to protect the SLFP. On Thursday she told a meeting of All Island local authority chairmen and vice chairmen that the identity of her party had to be preserved and launched an attack on the JVP for trying to destroy it in the past.

She has also summoned a meeting of all district level SLFP leaders for Tuesday. PA General Secretary and Minister D.M. Jayaratne told The Sunday Times each district leader had been told to be present at Janadipathi Mandiraya at 10 a.m. with two representatives each.

He said they had not been told the reason for the event. But The Sunday Times learnt she is to discuss measures to protect the identity of the SLFP.
Political observers say any declaration of a common stance after the Wickremesinghe-Kumaratunga talks may impact on Premier Rajapakse’s polls campaign. However, they are not sure whether such a position could be arrived at only after a single round of talks.

Mr. Wickremesinghe is also to appeal to Ms. Kumaratunga to put off the November 8 budget for a date after the presidential election. On Friday, UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya wrote to her asking that the budget be put off until November 22. “Given that the budget sets the government fiscal policy upto end 2006, it is only fair that it be determined by the policies and manifesto of the new President elected on November 17,” he pointed out.

He said it was clearly impossible to present a balanced budget based on the assurances of the two main candidates since the Appropriation Bill had already been presented before such documents were even drafted.
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