Chandrika's party to scrap presidency if elected

The United People's Freedom Alliance said in its election manifesto it hoped to revert to a parliamentary system and called the executive presidential system the root of the country's ills.

Under Sri Lanka's current system, the president is head of state and chief of the armed forces while the parliament pulls the purse strings.

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Kumaratunga used her powers last month to dissolve parliament, where her party was in opposition and the prime minister was her longtime adversary Ranil Wickremesinghe.

But unless Sri Lanka's constitution is changed, she cannot run again as head of state when her second term ends in December 2005.

The 48-page manifesto of the alliance, which she formed with the Marxist JVP or People's Liberation Front before calling the snap election, also promises to keep up talks with the Tamil Tigers to end 30 years of ethnic bloodshed.

The alliance vowed to maintain a February 2002 ceasefire between the rebels and government troops, even though both Kumaratunga and the JVP have been critical of the Norwegian-brokered truce in the past.

The manifesto called for greater role for the state sector with a plethora of subsidies.

"The railways, cluster bus companies, petroleum, electricity, ports and airports, water and state banks will not be privatised," the alliance said, adding it would set up an agency to run "non-strategic" state enterprises.

The centrepiece of the platform is the rewriting of the 1978 constitution to sidestep a required two-thirds majority in the 225-member parliament.