Ex Sri Lankan president rejects idea of unity gov't

Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday said that the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), under which he is contesting for a seat in Parliament at elections next month, will not agree to form a national unity government.

Speaking at an election rally, Rajapaksa said that the ruling United National Party (UNP) has been speaking of forming a national government after the election.

However, he said the UPFA is confident of securing majority seats in Parliament and will not form a national government.

Rajapaksa also warned the public to be on alert over the election manifesto of the main Tamil minority political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the support it is getting from the UNP.

The former president noted that the TNA has called for power devolution but the UPFA will not allow the country to be divided.

He said that a UPFA government will look to address the genuine concerns of the Tamils but will not agree to a solution which creates an separate state for the Tamils.

In its election manifesto released in the northern town of Jaffna on Saturday, the TNA had said that the Tamil people are entitled to self-determination in keeping with United Nations International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which Sri Lanka has accepted and acceded to.

TNA leader R. Sampanthan, reading out from the TNA election manifesto at the launch event, said that power sharing arrangements must continue to be established as it existed earlier in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Provinces based on a federal structure. Endi