Poll Setback for Sri Lanka Peace

Prospects for Sri Lanka's peace process dimmed yesterday after the president dissolved parliament and called a snap election, the third in four years.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga called a ballot for the 225-seat legislature on April 2 - more than three years ahead of schedule - amid a political feud with the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Mr Wickremesinghe and Mrs Kumaratunga lead rival political parties, and were elected in separate polls.

Critics of the president said there was no need for another election. There have already been calls for international monitors to observe the poll, and for measures to ensure the state media remains impartial.

Past elections have been marred by violence and vote-rigging. More than 60 people died during the last parliamentary vote, in 2001.

The decision to go the polls is part of a political crisis which began last November, when the president mounted a constitutional coup against Mr Wickremesinghe by suspending parliament and taking control of three government ministries - defence, interior and information.

Analysts doubted whether a fresh mandate was required to restart stalled peace talks, aimed at ending the island's civil war, between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and Hindu Tamil separatists, which has claimed 64,000 lives since 1983.

While a ceasefire between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Mr Wickremesinghe's government has held for more than two years, the president has accused Mr Wickremesinghe of making too many concessions.

Mrs Kumaratunga has said she would talk to the Tamil Tigers, but her Freedom party has recently signed an electoral pact with the JVP, a hardline Sinhalese nationalist party opposed to Tamil independence.

Observers say the president's decision to hold new elections will ensure there can be no meaningful steps towards a deal with the Tamils for at least three months.