No let-up in Sri Lankan crisis

Assuming what she says is correct, does it mean that she would try and change the character of the government? Why should an elected government be made to take part in a process of forming another government -- that of 'reconstruction and reconciliation'?

While Kumaratunga holds the presidency, her party is the official opposition, having lost elections to Wickremesinghe two years ago. It is undoubtedly an uneasy cohabitation which became even more apparent when the President dismissed the parliament and sacked ministers with sweeping powers vested in her by the constitution. With an all powerful president, it is clearly a parliamentary fiction. Such a system of polity is predisposed towards a collapse. When personal crisis turns into a national crisis, people are at the receiving end of it and in the case of a country like Sri Lanka, the peace process suffers a huge setback too.

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Therefore, in such unpredictable and unstable circumstances, only a mid-term election, as proposed by the prime minister, could help resolve the crisis. The onus lies on the president to set things back on track. Though the Norwegian mediators have returned to Sri Lanka, only time can tell what kind of effect the power struggle would have on the peace process.