Date:29/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/29/stories/2007012906221200.htm

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Political pact with ruling party invalid, says UNP

B. Muralidhar Reddy

— PHOTO: AFP

NEW LINE-UP: The newly appointed Sri Lankan Ministers in front of the Presidential Secretariat Building in Colombo on Sunday.

COLOMBO: Hours after defectors from the party joined the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government, the United National Party (UNP) announced that the political pact it signed with the ruling party in October is invalid.

The UNP spokesman, Tissa Attanayaka, told The Hindu that Rukman Senanayake, Chairman of the main Opposition UNP, has informed the Government that the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) had come to an end with the accommodation of the party's dissident group in the Cabinet.

Mr. Senanayake conveyed the party's decision when he met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday.

He told media persons here that he had not discussed any other matter. "I only met him to convey our decision that the MoU would come to an end with the dissidents' cross-over," said Rukman Senanayake.

Mr. Rajapaksa has created a record of sorts by having 104 Ministers in a Parliament of 225 members. Exactly half the number in the Ministry hold Cabinet rank.

With the support of members of Jathika Hela Urumaya that is extending support from outside, the Government claims a support of 118 members in Parliament. In other words barring half-a-dozen ruling party members, every other member on the side of the Government is a Minister.

Xinhua reports:

The UNP vowed here on Sunday to take disciplinary action against the defectors. ``We will expel them from the party,'' Mr. Senanayake said.

Minister of Media and Information Anura Yapa told reporters that the President's action in accommodating UNP members was not against the spirit of the MoU.

``We have not damaged the MoU. UNP members wanted to join the government so we have taken them,'' said Mr. Yapa, also the government spokesman. He said the UNP members joining the government were expected to bring political stability.

Analysts say Mr. Rajapaksa wanted Opposition legislators to join his government in view of the decision by the main left party, the JVP or the People's Liberation Front, to stay out of the government.