by Shan Wijetunga
A Snap election appears to be on the government's cards, most likely a presidential election. Some time back, it was expected to come in January or February, but looking at the government's propaganda plans, the date is likely to be in April or May next year. It is hoped to carry out a full scale reorganisation of the SLFP and the party central committee had been summoned for a discussion last Thursday to Temple Trees.

A group of SLFP MPs headed by Speaker K. B. Ratnayake had arrived to meet the president before the central committee meeting to thrash out certain problems involving the Anuradhapura district chief and Social Services Minister Bertie Premalal Dissanayake, who was also present. Minister Semasinhe represented matters on behalf of members. Most of them related to problems created by what was alleged to be unnecessary interference by Dissanayake. The Speaker did not participate in the discussion.

"As Speaker, I cannot interfere in these problems. All must learn to work in cooperation" he adviced.

Dissanayake's contention was that all these accusations are the result of his wife standing as a provicial council candidate. Others refuted the charge. Their position was that they had nothing against the nomination provided they were informed in time. The president said that the decision to run Mrs. Bertie Dissanayake was taken by the Cabinet.

Both Shantha Premaratne and Semasinhe assured that this was not the problem. Semasinghe said that the minister had criticised them recently. That was wrong.

The dialogue went on for nearly an hour and the president listened in silence. At the end, the president remarked that the MPs have full freedom to carry out their work in their electorates and no one can interfere. The meetig ended on a friendly note with everyone agreeing to cooperate with each other.

Meanwhile, the meeting of the Central Committee had begun pending the arrival of the president. There were about 25 members including Mangala Samaraweera, Anuruddha Ratwatte, S. B. Dissanayake, Richard Pathirana and Mahinda Rajapakse with Ananda Dassanayake in the chair. They had dealt with most of the matters when the president arrived a few had left the meeting by then. Those remaining discussed the problems faced by the electorate level organisers and specially the need to provide some relief for those without positions due to the postponement of provincial council elections.

U.N.P. eyes the E.P.
The UNP high command is intent on making a bid for power in the Eastern Province. The Leadership met and discussed matters with the organisers of Trincomalee and Ampara districts. This was followed by Ranil Wickremesinghe's meeting with the Tamil political leaders of the Colombo region at Shalika Hall, Narahenpita.

A party wedding?
Sunday was an important day for the UNP for a different reason. They assembled in their numbers at the Colombo Hilton for the wedding of former minister Harold Herat's younger son to the daughter of former minister E. L. Senanayake. There were non UNPer as well. The Speaker proposed the toast to the bride and groom. General Anuruddha Ratwatte and his wife were among the guests.

Furore over finance!
The meeting of the Jaffna District Development Fund was held in the parliamentary complex on Monday under the EPDP Chief Douglas Devananda, MP. Devanada was present though he is still recovering from the injuries sustained at the attack on him recently, the meeting had been summoned to obtain funds for urgent development work.

At the commencement of the meeting, Dr. I. M. Illyas, the Muslim Congress MP for Jaffna and the two brothers N. Ramamurthy and R. Rameshwaran made their requests. Although they had been expelled from the EPDP, they had retained their seats through court action.

Devananda refused to concede to their requests maintaining that funds cannot be granted according to the demands of MPs. Illyas and Rameshwaran disagreed. Their contention was that the money came from the decentralised budget. There was a heated argument with Devananda maintaining that it had been decided by the EPDP to allocate funds to the two expelled members.

"This is not an EPDP meeting. This is a government representative "Illyas argued. The situation hotted up and Illyas walked out with the other two claiming that Devananda threatened him.

Then the trio sat in the verandah and staged a sit down strike shouting slogans against Devananda and a crowd began to collect.

Finally, Parliament's Secretary General Bertram Tittawella and Sergeant at Arms S. Palliyaguruge who had arrived at the scene on hearing the uproar were able to get the contenders agree to go to Tittawella's office. There, Illyas presented the problem to Jeyaraj Fernandopulle over the phone and sought his advice. The minister while pointing out that according to the government decision, M.P.s have no power to spend funds as they wished and allocation of funds for projects is done by the District Development Committee and instructed Illyas as to the action to be taken.

Later, the UNP MP Azwer came to meet them. After discussing with him, Illyas made a complaint to the Deputy Minister of Defence on the threats levelled against him. They also prepared a letter addressed to the president.

Election fever
A special happening has been reported from Temple Trees seeming to confirm the government's plans to have a snap election. Members of the cabinet and a group of selected deputy ministers totalling 64., had been summoned for a special meeting Monday night. Fifty three were present.

As a preliminary step for the election campaign, the president had formulated a plan with 10 action committees. The meeting was to brief the members on these committees. A conspicuous absentee was Anuruddha Ratwatte. However, the president had nominated him for the elections operations committee along with Professor G. L. Pieris, Richard Pathirana, Lakshman Jayakody, Kadirgamar, Fernandopulle, Dharmasiri Senanayake, Mangala Samaraweera and S. B. Dissanayake.

The president had nominated Mahinda Rajapakse as the Chairman of the Fisheries Committee and requested him to select the, other members. Rajapakse was also in the Trade Union Organisation (committee) with John Seneviratne as chairman S. B. Dissanayake had been nominated as the chairman of the Samurdhi Committee A). Alavi Moulana had been nominated as the chairman of the Local Government and Provincial Councils committee. The president informed them that the elections must be held early and requested all committees to submit their reports within two weeks to the main committee. Once the proposals are approved by the main committee, stage one must be launched by October, she said.

The meeting ended with an invitation from the president for dinner, but some of the members left Temple Trees to attend Lakshman Jayakody's birthday party at Hotel Taj Samudra.

Birthday party
Minister Jayakody's daughter and grand children had organised a birthday party to celebrate his 68th birthday at Hotel Taj Samudra. Among the invitees were members of the cabinet, deputy ministers, MPs and members of the diplomatic corps. The menu was Indian with music to match. The minister cut the cake to the strains of "Happy birthday....."

Free elections...
While the government is readying for the elections, the UNP appears to be taking steps to call for an all party conference to ensure free and independent election. Mahinda Samarasinghe and Tyronne Fernando have been entrusted with the operation. At a discussion they had with Ranil Wickramasinghe it was agreed that all parties must be summoned for the conference.

Samarasinghe said that already the Tamil parties had consented to attend the conference. It was also decided to invite, in addition to political parties, organisations such as human rights organisations, election observation organisations and members of the diplomatic corps.

Action
The president had invited SLFP organisers at electorate level who are not M.P.s for a meeting at Temple Trees. No formal and detailed discussion were held as the president was late for the meeting. However, the president visited each table and had informal conversation with them during dinner time. To some of the issues raised, solutions were givem instantly with Balapatabendi summoned for the purpose. All organisers were issued with identity cards before their departure from Temple Trees.

Postponement of polls
The postponement of provincial council elections was the subject of an open, friendly discussion at the usual monthly meeting of the Foreign Correspondent's Association held at Galle Face Hotel Professor G. L. Pieris, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Tyronne Fernando and senior lecturer Rohan Edirisinghe were the panellists. Each speaker was allocated five minutes to present his views in brief.

Tyronne Fernando remarked that although during the UNP regime emergency was declared from time to time. it was not used as a tool to postpone elections.

Both Vasudeva and Rohan Edirisinghe spoke against the government's decision .... G. L. requested for more time to clarify his position in view of the fact that all three had spoken against the government decision.

Although the UNP claimed that they did not postpone elections, they used the referendum to postpone parliamentary elections by six years. And during that time, there was a big variance between the composition of the parliament and the feelings of the masses. Therefore, it amounted to a loss of privilege by the people, G. L. said.

Replying to a query from media men, Tyronne Fernando maintained that the Public Security Act clearly lays down the circumstances under which it can be evoked, what has happened is something outside its provisions.

"During the UNP time emergency regulations were used not only for the adoption of children but also the salt industry" G. L. countered.

"If the government maintains that the election cannot be held until the war is over, the UNP could have postponed the election until the JVP was put down in 1989". Do you accept that?" Tyronne asked.

G. L. said that the government had never declared that it is going to postpone the elections until the LTTE is crushed. The war has reached a critical stage. Therefore, the large scale withdrawal of forces from the front is an irresponsible act.

"This is not a postponement. This is an abolition of provincial councils" remarked Vasudeva.

"The government has no intention of abolishing provincial councils" G. L. replied.

At this rate, even the Parliamentary elections and the Presidential elections can be postponed?" queried Rohan Edirisinghe.

"The government has no intention of disregarding public opinion. What the people now want is not elections but to win the war" G. L. said.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara charged that the P.A. government took this kind of decisions without informing any of the constituent parties. G. L. maintained otherwise. He said that before the cabinet decision to postpone the election was taken the party leaders of the PA had been appraised.

Vasudeva disagrees

"As a party, we have taken a decision that the postponement of elections is wrong. Declaration of emergency is also wrong. Not only these, there are hundreds of other wrongs. There are matters on which we do not agree. Therefore, the government has lost our confidence" he went on.

A foreign correspondent asked him why he continues to remain with the government if there are so many wrongs.

"That is our biggest worry," Vasudeva said, "We are now discussing as to what should be done. Holding positions in a government we have lost confidence in is a big burden. I of course think that we must quit the government."

It was plainly visible that his comments came as a surprise not only to G. L. but also to others who were there.

"Although we may relinquish our positions in the government, it is necessary to maintain ties with the government to face darker forces". Obviously some kind of warning to the government.

We need more green backs!
These days, the UNP is engrossed in the serious business of collecting funds for party activities. As a first step, they threw a dinner for a group of local businessmen at the Oberoi.

Organised by Noel Selvanayagam, on Ranil Wickremasinghe's instructions, a number of UNP MPs and other top brass attended the dinner.

The plan was to hand over 250 membership cards at Rs. 1000 each to 40 selected businessmen. They are expected to sell the cards to other businessmen with the aim of collecting Rs. 10 million. This money will be used for branch work.

The party started with a cocktail. Selvanayagam explained the purpose of the party and bought the first batch of cards for Rs. 1000. This plan will be implemened in USA as well where Ranil Wickremasinghe and Melroy Fernando are due to visit in mid September.