The ‘unity government’ came to power in January 2015 with the avowed promise of ‘governance reforms’ but with the single-point agenda of removing war-time President Rajapaksa. The UNP under Wickremesinghe had the numbers on its side with support from poll-time allies, and they continued in office. So much so, ahead of Saturday’s local government polls, Sirisena has openly declared that he could not continue to run a government with ‘corrupt’ people, a reference to the UNP ally. Instead, he could do so only six months ahead of the next parliamentary polls and without assigning reasons. The long run-up to the next round of presidential and parliamentary polls in 2020 is bound to be fraught with more political instability.

Source: Sunday Times February 09, 2018 05:37 UTC