Wickremesinghe, quoting chapter and verse from the Constitution, has said that a UNP-dominated parliament will be able to clip the wings of the presidency, making it subject to Parliamentary scrutiny and lifting the controversial immunity status that the incumbent enjoys. The ruling People's Alliance, with Kumaratunga set to continue till 2006 at the helm, has rebutted the claim saying the president as the country's chief executive, who can head the cabinet of ministers and hold the defence portfolio, is all-powerful. Kumaratunga must see her side winning at least a simple majority in the 225-seat legislature in order to avoid a constitutional showdown and has called on voters to prevent that eventuality.

Recent opinion surveys conducted by private pollsters put the PA coalition and the UNP neck and neck with voters apparently unable to give either of them the decisive edge. The latest government salvo aimed at Wickremesinghe comes in the shape of an alleged pact between the UNP and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), echoing the PA's election campaign refrain.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told journalists on Wednesday that the "top secret" document had fallen into the government's hands and that it contained details of an agreement between the opposition and the LTTE. When asked about its authenticity, he said the document "has not been proved to be a false one". According to the pact, the UNP will confine the government troops to the barracks in the northern Jaffna peninsula and will put an LTTE-controlled interim administration in place in the embattled north-eastern province.

The UNP angrily rejected the accusation Thursday, describing the document as "a piece of creative work and a total fabrication." Voters go to the polls on October 10 and the days after are expected to be a cliff-hanger with neither of the two main parties, the PA and the UNP expected to get a big enough margin to go it alone. Any backstage lobbying for support from small parties and independent groups will have to be concluded before October 14, a red letter day for the new government if it wants to keep the prevailing emergency regulations in place.

Sri Lanka has had the tough emergency regulations in force since May 1983 when it was imposed to deal with the rebel LTTE which is fighting for a separate state in the north and east of the island. The regulations give the police and armed forces wide powers to arrest and detain suspects and have been lifted only for short periods at a time. President Kumaratunga Wednesday made the proclamation to extend the state of emergency for another month and Parliament will have to meet within ten days to ratify it.

In the event of the regulations lapsing, the most significant effect will be the release of hundreds of detainees taken in under the emergency. The power of the legislature was emphasised last month when Kumaratunga was forced to re-summon a dissolved Parliament just to have the emergency proclamation ratified. While both parties have pledged in their manifestoes to scrap the presidential system, it is the potential interim confrontations that have voters agonizing over whether to choose continuity or change.

(India Abroad News Service)