Sri Lanka faced a fresh constitutional battle Wednesday after the president's move to give herself an extra year in office was rejected by the government as "arrogant, arbitrary and capricious."
President Chandrika Kumaratunga told state television overnight that her term will now end in 2006, although at the time of her public investiture in 1999 she was sworn-in for a six-year term ending December 2005.
"It is up to me to take a decision whether I am to continue in the office of president till 2006 or not," she said, admitting that she had a second investiture ceremony conducted in private some time in 2000.
But government spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris insisted that the president's term will end in 2005 and rejected Kumaratunga's claim that it was she who could decide when the term would be up.
"That degree of arrogance is unacceptable," Peiris told reporters here. "Anyone holding public office cannot arbitrarily and capriciously decide when their period of office comes to an end.
"We don't concede that she has any legal arguments to justify giving herself another year in office."
Political sources said Kumaratunga's surprise announcement had added a new dimension to the power struggle between her and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who are from rival parties and have been elected at separate votes.
"The country is going in for a period of political chaos," Tamil legislator Dharmalingam Sidhathan said. "The president's announcement will deepen the rift between the two main political parties in the country."
Their power struggle has undermined Norwegian efforts to broker peace in the island where over 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic bloodshed since 1972.
The prime minister had been hoping to run for president in December 2005 when Kumaratunga completes the maximum of two terms allowed by the constitution.
"My term ends in 2006," the state-run Daily News said in its front-page headline report on Kumaratunga's overnight interview.
"President Kumaratunga declared yesterday that she was constitutionally empowered to continue her present term as president until 2006 whatever arguments are advanced to the contrary," the Daily News said.
She insisted that her actions were constitutional but did not give the exact date in 2000 when she had the second swearing-in ceremony that is now being disclosed.
She denied any "secrecy" but admitted that only chief justice Sarath Silva and then foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar were present at the private ceremony.
She did not say why the ceremony had been kept secret.
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