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Talks between the Sri Lankan government and opposition to solve the country's political crisis broke down on Tuesday night.
A joint statement by Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and opposition United National Party MP K N Choksy said the delegations 'terminated their discussions without reaching an overall agreement'.
The collapse of the talks means that there will be no government of national reconciliation that many believed to be the solution to the intractable political problems and inexorable economic crisis gripping the conflict-ravaged island nation.
The crisis was triggered over two months ago when the ruling People's Alliance regime was reduced to a minority in parliament.
Since then President Chandrika Kumarantunga has suspended parliament and campaigned for electoral reforms and constitutional change as the only solutions to the nation's political problems.
"The talks are over. There is no settlement. We will either fight it out in parliament or go to the people," UNP assistant leader Gamini Atukorale said after three days of hectic deliberations aimed at a power-sharing arrangement collapsed over irreconcilable differences between the two main parties.
Atukorale said they failed to come to an agreement on crucial aspects of proposals put forward by both sides.
UNP sources said the party insisted that its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe be made prime minister in a one-year interim government, with full powers to constitute his own cabinet, allocate portfolios and also have the power to appoint secretaries to all ministries.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the UNP contended, should let the prime minister run the government. However, the PA refused to countenance this proposal.
The PA wanted Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to be made vice-president after the constitution was amended to create such a post. However, the UNP rejected the proposal, the sources said.
The opposition told the PA delegation that if it could not agree to Wickremesinghe heading a cabinet on his own, the president should reopen parliament and allow voting on a no-confidence motion moved by 97 members of the opposition.
The opposition has already met Speaker Anura Bandaranaike to impress on him to go by the opinion of the majority and let them decide the agenda for the parliamentary session, due to re-open on September 7.
However, it is not clear if parliament will be convened on the schedule date. Sections of the opposition are apprehensive that Kumaratunga may prorogue it for a further period so that she can dissolve it in October, when it completes one year of existence and its dissolution becomes constitutionally permissible, and order fresh polls.
With the talks ending in a major failure, the country is inevitably heading towards elections.
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