Sri Lankan president, Rajapaksa hold key talks

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa held key talks on Wednesday which was seen as an attempt to bridge a division which has emerged within the same party which both politicians belong to.

The meeting, the first since Sirisena defeated Rajapaksa in the January 8 presidential election, took place at the parliament complex in the presence of several members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Xinhua news agency reported.

SLFP member Duminda Dissanayake told journalists soon after the meeting that the talks between Sirisena and Rajapaksa had been successful but added that details of the talks would be divulged only after an SLFP meeting.

Sirisena was the health minister in Rajapaksa's government but he split from the government to contest in the presidential election which he eventually won.

Following his victory, Sirisena was made chairman of the SLFP while Rajapaksa and former president Chandrika Kumaratunga were named as advisors.

Sirisena formed a national unity government with the United National Party which was earlier in the opposition and Rajapaksa later accused the government of being involved in a witch hunt against him and his family as well as SLFP members who are supporting him.

Rajapaksa was expected to seek approval to contest as prime minister in the parliamentary election scheduled to take place soon and that was one of the issues which was expected to be discussed at the meeting with Sirisena.

However, speaking ahead of the meeting, cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne told Xinhua that Sirisena had rejected the proposal put forward by Rajapaksa to contest as the SLFP prime ministerial candidate and Sirisena was likely to inform the former leader of his decision that the post would be decided based on the votes received in the parliamentary election.

Senaratne further said that another key proposal put forward by Rajapaksa was to drop the corruption investigations against his supporters and family which once again Sirisena has refused.

"The president wants to strictly maintain good governance and he does not want to interfere with the law," Senaratne said.