The Sri Lankan United National Party (UNP) promised to support any legislation that could be introduced by the President to restore the status quo of the merger of North and East struck down by the Supreme Court (SC) as “null and void.” Led by moderate leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, UNP said that the SC had only questioned the merger of the areas by a Presidential decree and not questioned their merger via a Constitutional amendment.
The UNP also agreed unanimously that on forging consensus with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by President Mahinda Rajapakse on important issues is necessary for the nation. They said Wickremesinghe will close the deal with Rajapakse on the 6-point agreement which was necessary to develop a common approach to the ethnic issue of the North and East.
However, there is no consensus within the UNP to join the Government. While a majority want to, the working and executive committee are opposed to the idea.
Meanwhile, the Members of Parliament representing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is the political front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), disrupted Parliamentary proceedings protesting the SC ruling. Since historically, successive Governments had manipulated the judiciary and other statutory bodies, the TNA thinks that the SC is being manipulated by Rajapakse to divide the territory and the Tamils.
The Lankan SC had only objected to the way the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord provisions were implemented and not the merger possibility itself.
