Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga claimed to have a secret formula to overcome the country's political crisis as she vowed to introduce sweeping electoral reforms that will favour her minority government, state media reported on Monday.
The embattled leader also urged dissidents within her party to quit as she addressed members of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) coalition and its main constituent Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the government-run daily news said.
The President told SLFP and PA politicians ... That if they were not content with the party, they were most welcome to leave immediately without causing sabotage and destruction from within, the government-run daily news reported.
There have been reports of growing dissent within the ruling party ranks with Kumaratunga's one-time close ally, parliamentary affairs minister S. B. Dissanayake, openly admitting that he had differences with the President. Earlier this month Kumaratunga shut down Parliament for two months until September 7 when the PA lost its parliamentary majority following the defection of seven Muslim legislators.
Kumaratunga called a referendum on August 21 to ask the nation if it believed it needed a new constitution, the shape and form of which has yet to be announced.
National television also reported that she had told the meeting she had a secret formula to sidestep the present Constitution and introduce a new one without the mandatory two-thirds in the legislature.
Bureau Report