Faced with the prospect of more parliamentarians defecting to the breakaway Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Mahajana Wing) founded by sacked cabinet minister Mangala Samaraweera, President Mahinda Rajapaksa last Friday threatened to dissolve parliament and seek a fresh mandate.
According to media reports, Rajapaksa told a special meeting of ministers and senior SLFP leaders that the situation was "worsening day by day" with the breakaway group under former minister Mangala Samaraweera trying to form a common opposition front and begin agitations.
The threat came after Samaraweera said that 15 to 20 MPs from the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) might join the SLFP (MW).
Rajapaksa said that if the threat from the combined opposition mounted, he might have no option but to dissolve parliament and seek a fresh mandate.
That Rajapaksa cannot take his party men for granted any more was evident in the way SLFP MPs reacted to Samaraweera's vituperative attack on the Rajapaksa regime and the "Rajapaksa Brothers" in parliament earlier this week, the Hindustan Times reported.
“No SLFP MP rose to contradict Samaraweera or defend the government,” the paper said.
“This suggested the possibility that if Samaraweera's SLFP(MW) grew in influence, some SLFP MPs and even Ministers might be tempted to defect to it,” the paper said.
The political atmosphere in Sri Lanka is becoming unfavourable for Rajapaksa with the opposition United National Party (UNP) making serious charges against the government and publicly proposing an alliance with the SLFP (MW).
UNP General Secretary and parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake told a news conference the UNP was inviting all democratic political parties to team up with it in the struggle against the government.
Mr. Attanayake, who participated in talks between the UNP and SLFP (MW), said the two parties decided to appoint a joint committee to study Mr. Samaraweera’s policy statement titled ‘Daring to dream towards a new Sri Lankan order.’
Separately, the spiralling cost of living has alienated the urban population, and there is also unbridled high-level corruption and abductions for extortions in the capital Colombo.
Rajapaksa hopes to pacify his critics by taking corrective economic measures. The contours of these measures will be presented as a document to the SLFP's 17th General Convention on July 21.
The state-owned Daily News quoted the General Secretary of the SLFP, Maithripala Sirisena, as saying that the new proposals would cover a wide range of national problems, with special reference to agriculture, the mainstay of the rural economy.
According to media reports, Rajapaksa told a special meeting of ministers and senior SLFP leaders that the situation was "worsening day by day" with the breakaway group under former minister Mangala Samaraweera trying to form a common opposition front and begin agitations.
The threat came after Samaraweera said that 15 to 20 MPs from the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) might join the SLFP (MW).
Rajapaksa said that if the threat from the combined opposition mounted, he might have no option but to dissolve parliament and seek a fresh mandate.
That Rajapaksa cannot take his party men for granted any more was evident in the way SLFP MPs reacted to Samaraweera's vituperative attack on the Rajapaksa regime and the "Rajapaksa Brothers" in parliament earlier this week, the Hindustan Times reported.
“No SLFP MP rose to contradict Samaraweera or defend the government,” the paper said.
“This suggested the possibility that if Samaraweera's SLFP(MW) grew in influence, some SLFP MPs and even Ministers might be tempted to defect to it,” the paper said.
The political atmosphere in Sri Lanka is becoming unfavourable for Rajapaksa with the opposition United National Party (UNP) making serious charges against the government and publicly proposing an alliance with the SLFP (MW).
UNP General Secretary and parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake told a news conference the UNP was inviting all democratic political parties to team up with it in the struggle against the government.
Mr. Attanayake, who participated in talks between the UNP and SLFP (MW), said the two parties decided to appoint a joint committee to study Mr. Samaraweera’s policy statement titled ‘Daring to dream towards a new Sri Lankan order.’
Separately, the spiralling cost of living has alienated the urban population, and there is also unbridled high-level corruption and abductions for extortions in the capital Colombo.
Rajapaksa hopes to pacify his critics by taking corrective economic measures. The contours of these measures will be presented as a document to the SLFP's 17th General Convention on July 21.
The state-owned Daily News quoted the General Secretary of the SLFP, Maithripala Sirisena, as saying that the new proposals would cover a wide range of national problems, with special reference to agriculture, the mainstay of the rural economy.
