President clinches deal with UNP to continue coalition

New lease of life for Yahapalana Govt., but minefields ahead, including an imminent rise in fuel prices - Sirisena deftly avoids second meeting of SLFP Central Committee - PM in stronger position now; SLFP ministers who did not vote against him temporarily get the subjects of those who quit

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, April 15, 2018

President Maithripala Sirisena, leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) took the unprecedented step of urging ministers of his own party to boycott last Tuesday’s weekly Cabinet meeting – perhaps a first such move in a practising democracy.

In doing so, he was cushioning a feared fallout from a widespread call by members of the Central Committee, the party’s policy making body, to quit the coalition or “the national unity Government.” They were to take a final decision at a second CC meeting on Wednesday but Sirisena, though he promised, did not summon one. He may not have wanted to be thrust with a decision to quit the coalition. He told the UNP ministers that most wanted to quit the Government. Thus began a tense political drama that continued throughout Wednesday and Thursday.

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