The Hindu : SLFP, JVP to form alliance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

International

International

SLFP, JVP to form alliance

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, JAN. 14. A political alliance between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the left-radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is to be formalised on January 20, it was officially announced today.

"The much-awaited alliance will be signed by the two parties,'' said an official from the office of the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is also the leader of the SLFP, this evening. "It will be a working agreement between the two parties'' a senior SLFP member told . The pact, to be signed by the general secretaries of the two parties, was aimed at working towards contesting the elections as an alliance, he said.

No details of the proposed agreement _ described by both as `historic' _ were given. The announcement, at a time when efforts are on to work out a cohabitation agreement between the President, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is indicative of an election in the making. Provincial council polls are already on the cards. And, with Ms. Kumaratunga empowered to dissolve Parliament and call general elections, the possibility of a snap poll is also not ruled out.

"One cannot underestimate the possibility of the SLFP-JVP link up emerging as a formidable electoral alliance'', Ketheshwaran Loganathan, Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, said. Pointing out that it is still unclear if the arrangement would culminate in a snap parliamentary poll, he said: "If it is the latter, then the compulsions for a cohabitation arrangement will be eroded.''

The nature and extent of the compromise between the two parties on solving the separatist conflict is not yet known. Ms. Kumaratunga, an advocate of devolution of powers, sees a move away from the present unitary state as the basis for a solution. The JVP, on the other hand, is a hardline advocate of the unitary state and opposes any move away as one leading to separatism.

In an interview over state-run TV last night, Ms. Kumaratunga said the agreement would be signed in due course, but did not mention any timeframe. The coming together of the two parties is expected to place the combine at an electoral advantage, particularly in the Sinhalese-majority south, based on calculations after the 2001 Parliamentary elections. The JVP has 16 MPs, making it the third largest Parliamentary group after the ruling United National Front (UNF) and the People's Alliance (PA), which is an SLFP-led coalition.

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