Lanka Prez on foreign tour, defers announcing northern polls

Deferring announcement of the much-awaited provincial council election in the country's Tamil-dominated north, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today left on an official overseas visit.
Rajapaksa took off on a four-day visit to Tanzania and Seychelles, officials said.
His visit came amidst speculation that he would call the northern provincial council election this week.
Presidential sources said the proclamation from the president on holding the northern election has been deferred by two weeks.
Sources said the technical reasons of having to seek approval from all of the eight provincial councils for the envisaged amendments to the thirteenth amendment (13A) had held back the presidential decision.

Two of the councils, the southern and the south-western Sabaragamuva council on Tuesday approved the amendments.

The amendments are mainly aimed at preventing two or more councils from merging together.
The opposition, Tamil and Muslim minority parties are objecting to the amendments saying they violate the powers conferred on devolved provincial administrations by the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Accord.
Early this week, the country's election chief had said that the northern election would be held in September-end.
The election is seen as crucial by international watchers who regard it as a major step towards reconciliation with the island's Tamil minority since the end of a brutal three-decade-long civil war in 2009 when government troops finally crushed LTTE rebels fighting for a separate Tamil homeland.

However, the government has held back the election as Sinhala nationalists within the ruling coalition have raised fears about Tamil party TNA gaining control of the province and pursuing a separatist agenda.
The government has contemplated a move to water down the provincial powers, particularly the right of the provinces to merge with another to form a joint administration and control of the provincial police and land mass.
Concerned over reports of Sri Lanka considering removal of land and police powers prior to the northern elections, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid had spoken to his Sri Lankan counterpart G L Peiris last month and underlined the need to leave the 13A unchanged, urging Colombo not to take any step contrary to its own commitments relating to the 13A.