UNP to support Govt. for two years

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) will support the Mahinda Rajapaksa government for two years on six key national issues, the party’s leadership confirmed yesterday.

A high-level committee headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and comprising an equal number of representatives from the two parties will continue to monitor the progress of the MoU during the two-year period.

Opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday he had given his approval to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is likely to be signed on Monday or Tuesday, between his party and the ruling SLFP.

The leaders of the two parties met on Friday night to finalise the draft of the MoU prepared by the UNP and screened by the SLFP.
Yesterday, two outstanding issues, viz, provisions for cross-overs and the manner in which the UNP would support the Government, were being ironed out.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said that initially, the UNP would support the Government to pass the Budget in Parliament.

The significant aspect of the MoU would be that the country’s two main political parties would agree that the ongoing northern insurgency should have a ‘political settlement’.

This would effectively mean, the continuation of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement Mr. Wickremesinghe signed as PM at that time with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran; and the continuation with Norway’s role as facilitator in the peace process.

These two factors are fundamentally opposed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which supported the candidature of Mr. Rajapaksa over Mr. Wickremesinghe for the presidency in November last year.

The contentious issue over the acceptance of ministerial portfolios by UNPers will be put off for a decision after the MoU is signed.

This will be a subject that will be discussed between the President and the Leader of the Opposition and later ratified or rejected as the case may be by the respective decision-making bodies of the two parties.

The MoU spells out ways and means by which the two parties will cooperate on six high priority national issues – conflict in the north and east, electoral reforms, good governance, economic development, nation building and social development.

The two parties have also decided to re-activate the stalled constitutional council that was to function under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution appointing persons to Independent Police, Public Services, Elections, Bribery Commission and Judges of the Appellate Courts.

Political victimisation issues are also to be taken up early in this process.

The MoU, if it operates for the full two-year period will ensure that there will be no parliamentary elections for that time. The next General Election is due in early 2010. Yesterday President Rajapaksa briefed leaders of the other parties in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), except the JVP. He also briefed the JHU separately.

The President during the briefing mainly focused on the issues of good governance, a solution to the ethnic conflict and electoral reforms.

The JHU delegation asked the President to explain how the MoU would be worked out between the two parties and said they would welcome the move as long as the objective was not to gain political mileage.

Reacting to the UNP-SLFP MoU, JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa said it would become relevant to them only at one point – whether the two sides were in agreement to defeat terrorism and separatism. “We will wait to see how they will respond to this.”