Sri Lanka It's Happening

April 7, 2004

For two political parties in Sri Lanka it has always been win win situation. These parties - the CWC (Ceylon Workers Congress) and the SLMC (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress) usually contest the elections in partnership the UNP.

The UNP has come to rely so much on their support that in recent times they have been calling themselves the United National Front (UNF) instead of the more well known United National Party.

There exists an agreement (at times only a gentlemens agreement - though many people wouldn't use that term on sri lankan politians) between these two parties and the UNF. That is they can contest on the UNF ticket but later on if the UNF is not able to form a government they can act independently. Independently usualy means they can join the other party to form a government.

Thus when the UNF wins an election the SLMC and CWC immidiately partner with them to form a government and land a couple of ministries for the seniors MPs. When the UNF loses - they act independently to help the UPFA (or PA or SLFP as it used be) to form a government and get a chance for some of their seniors to become ministers.

Thus these two parties always have a win win situation - at least for themselves.

However this time there may be an exception, Mr. Thondaman, the leader of the CWC says they haven't decided to work with the UPFA yet...
let's see how this one develops.

Posted by raditha at April 7, 2004 4:48 PM