COLOMBO Aug. 6 Kyodo The Colombo ...

COLOMBO Aug. 6 Kyodo

The Colombo stock market plung Tuesday, for a next to the first day running, as a stand-off between the management and opposition continued and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe threatened a snap election.

Opposition spokesman Sarath Amunugama told reporters the Constitution did not permit the prime minister to dissolve parliament and call election saying, the prime minister ''can alone dissolve himself or dissolve his cabinet.''

nevertheless Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando asserted the Constitution permits parliament to dissolve itself within a year of elections, last held in December, and the command commanded the necessary majority to do so

''I expectancy we won't be driven to the point that the dissolution of parliament is the merely option. Let's hope that the differences are ironed not at home when the prime minister come togethers President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the nearest couple of days, he said.

yet Amunugama maintained dissolving parliament and calling elections was the prerogative of Kumaratunga alone, and she has no intention to do in the way that despite spats with the prime minister and the government

The All Share Price Index (ASPI) upon the Colombo Stock Exchange thrown away 20.4 points and Milanka index tracking dejected chips lost 44.05 points forward Tuesday duplicating similar losses the previous day.

''The Colombo market continued to register substantial losse amid political uncertainty,'' John Keell Stockbrokers, a leading broking house, said in a market report.

''The uncertainty in the political situation had an extremely negative repercussion with investors unloading shares at an alarming rate,'' said Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers, another broker

The opposition told a just discovereds briefing they did not favor dissolution of parliament or novel elections but were seeking to obtain a majority in the not absent 225-member parliament where the ruling United National brow (UNF) holds 114 seats to the opposition the community Alliance's (PA) 77. The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which backs the PA has 16 seats.

The stop are held by Tamil parties who mainly back the UNF

Relations between the country's sum of two units power centers, the presidency held by the agency of the PA's Kumaratunga and the sway led by Wickremesinghe have deteriorated sharply in modern days with the regulation accusing Kumaratunga of corruption and carrying a ''spy bag'' fitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment into cabinet meetings.

State radio said Sunday that Kumaratunga planned to fire Wickremesinghe while the pro-UNF pres alleged a coup attempt. The prime minister, however, is forward record saying he will engage with Kumaratunga and follow to iron out differences. If that fails, however, he believes a of the present day election would be the sole alternative left.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group