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Chandrika move on Lotteries Board irks Ranil

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO MAY 10. Sri Lanka's co-habitation politics took a turn for the worse on Friday night with the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, disagreeing with the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga's decision to take over a body allotted to the Economic Reforms Ministry.

The crisis erupted when the President decided to take over the Development Lotteries Board headed by Milinda Moragoda, a key Minister in the ongoing peace process. As the Executive President, who is the constitutional head of Cabinet, Ms. Kumaratunga wrote to Mr. Moragoda announcing her decision to "bring the administration of the DLB" under her purview "with immediate effect". The DLB was under the Ministry of Finance till December 2001, when Mr. Wickremesinghe won the Parliamentary election.

In a retaliatory move, Mr. Wickremesinghe shot off a letter to Ms. Kumaratunga saying "I cannot agree to any subject or function assigned being changed by yourself without reference to the Prime Minister" as it was "a requirement of Article 44 of the Constitution", and requested her to "stay publication of the Gazette notification".

According to Article 44, "the President shall, from time to time, in consultation with the Prime Minister, whenever he considers such consultation to be necessary" determine Cabinet making. The crisis came on to the streets, literally, last night when party supporters reportedly exchanged blows in the Government Press. Political observers see the latest Presidential move as "a test balloon". Moreover, with plans afoot for a political pact between the President's Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Left-radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the move could turn out to be a prelude to a more difficult phase of cohabitation politics.

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