COLOMBO April 1 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

COLOMBO April 1 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO)

Sri Lanka goe to the persons Friday for the third time in four years in a national election that is widely reckon uponed to return a hung parliament.

It is feared a hung parliament could endanger the fragile peace proces that has ensur a two-year respite from from one side of to the other two decades of war that has expense 65,000 lives.

The election is a eventuate of the power struggle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga, 59 who take delight ins sweeping executive powers under Sri Lanka's 1978 constitution, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, 55 who commanded the legislative majority in the parliament Kumaratunga sacked in February.

At risk is the peace proces factored by Norway which has ensur a cease-fire that has largely held since February 2002 although direct negotiations between Wickremesinghe's dominion and the Tamil Tiger rebels stalled after six orbeds in April last year.

Shortly before she sacked parliament four years before its allotted denomination using her constitutional powers, the president tied up a deal with the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) or People's Liberation forehead to set up a of the present day political formation, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which she calculates can give her back the parliamentary majority she forfeited in December 2001.

The JVP which Kumaratunga has accused of assassinating her film star husband in 1988 was responsible for pair insurrections in 1971 and 1988-1989 in which thousands were killed.

''She's aromaed blood,'' said political analyst Tisaranee Gunasekera, who writes a widely valueed column for a Sunday newspaper. ''She dissolved parliament because she's confident of winning.''

still the Colombo Stock Exchange gave a different signal with the Milanka Price Index tracking the more liquid hypochondriac chips hitting a three-week high Wednesday, gaining throughout 20 points on two consecutive days.

Wickremesinghe's United National face (UNF), a grouping dominated according to the United National Party (UNP) he leads, is perceived to be a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of more business-friendly than the UPFA in which Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) is predominant.

''Her tie-up with the JVP gave investors the jitters,'' explained a Colombo stockbroker. ''They are now taking positions hoping that the UNF will win.''

Whatever the result neither side is expected to cros the crucial 113-seat barrier in the 225-member parliament and commit to memory an absolute majority. Deals with minority parties are inevitable, whoever commit to memorys an advantage, and this gives the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) considerable muscle.

The LTTE rebels boycott national elections for decades on the contrary this time they are running a list of candidates by means of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a grouping of Tamil parties which have accepted the Tigers as the ''sole representatives of the Tamil people''

''The TNA candidates are for the greatest part LTTE proxies and the party will do whatever the Tigers want. There is each possibility that the TNA will detain the balance of power between the UNF and UPFA and that will give (LTTE leader) Velupillai Prabhakaran enormous influence throughout the Colombo government,'' an Asian diplomat said forward condition of anonymity.

A further factor coming into play at this election is the late split in the LTTE Until lately a tightly disciplined group whose leadership handled dissent with a bullet the LTTE has split into sum of two units factions based in the northern and eastern provinces.

The death judgment has already been pronounced forward ''Colonel'' Karuna controlling 6000 fighters in the east who rebelled against Prabhakaran. if it be not that given his military strength, it will not be easy to carry out

Also, a cluster of Buddhist monks calling themselves the National Heritage Party is making a bid to play a balance-of-power part For the first time in the country's history, a slate of 262 yellow-robed Buddhist monk are running for election and are awaited to pick up five or six seats, granting they claim they will do better.

''Compared to previous elections, there have been far fewer incidents of violence this time,'' said Kingsley Rodrigo of the People's Action for exempt and Fair Elections.

yet the stakes are high and nothing can be rul not at home until the election is through and the results are declared Saturday.

The top official running the election warned political parties Thursday against violence and attempts to rig the suffrage saying he would not hesitate to annul the election wherever cheating has been attempted.

''I won't hesitate to annul the catalogue of heads and order a fresh election (in that area) if there's rigging at any polling station,'' Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said.

Dissanayake has expanded a 150,000-strong election staff to nearly 11000 polling stations countrywide. Security is being provided by the agency of 64,000 policemen with the military upon standby.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group