SL President extends her term

2004-01-14 12:48

Colombo, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's president has revealed that she privately underwent a second swearing-in ceremony a year after she last took office, and claims this entitles her to stay in her post an additional year, until 2006, further complicating the island's political crisis.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga's stunning revelation on Tuesday came during a bitter power struggle with her political rival, the separately elected Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had no immediate comment.

The president and prime minister have been deadlocked since November 4 when Kumaratunga fired three of Wickremesinghe's Cabinet ministers after accusing him of jeopardising the country's security by giving too many concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels.

The country's peace process has been on hold since then.

Kumaratunga, who heads a different political party than Wickremesinghe, controls the military and has wide authority to sack the government. Her actions cannot be challenged in court.

She was first sworn-in for a six-year term as president in 1994. Although the next presidential election was not due until 2000, she called for an early poll in 1999, in which she won re-election.

The question now is whether her second six-year term started in 1999 - due to the early election - or in 2000 - as would normally have been the case.

"It is up to me'

"It is up to me to take a decision whether I am to continue in the office of presidency till 2006 or not," Kumaratunga told state-owned Independent Television Network on Tuesday.

Kumaratunga publicly took an oath of office in December 1999, which would suggest her term ends in 2005. But she now says she took the oath at that time - just days after escaping a Tamil Tiger rebel suicide bombing - only because she wanted to squash rumours that she was physically unfit to hold the office of presidency.

"I had to do it to calm down the people who had already taken to the streets in protest of my attack," Kumaratunga said in the television interview.

She said she held another ceremony in 2000 in private with Chief Justice Sarath Silva and the president's confidant, Lakshman Kadirgamar. Nobody else attended, but she argued there was no need to make it public.

Rohan Edirisinha, a top constitutional expert, said it was unclear whether her term should end in 2005, or in 2006.

"There are two plausible and legally justified interpretations that can support both arguments," he said.

The political stalemate has stalled attempts to forge a lasting peace with the Tamil Tiger rebels and end a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65 000 people. Norway brokered a cease-fire in February 2002.

- AP