Rajapaksa to face toughest political test on Monday

The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa rode to power in December 2005 on a surging wave of Sinhala majoritarian nationalism. He went on to prove his credentials as a tough cookie when he took the Tamil Tigers head-on and drove them out of the Eastern province in 2006-7.

But by year end, on the eve of the voting on the annual budget, he finds himself on a shaky political wicket in his own turf, the Sinhala-dominiated South Sri Lanka.

The budget for the year 2008 is to come up for voting on Monday, and Rajapaksa is not at all certain if it will get even the simple majority which is required.

This is because of internal dissensions, opposition from those who had been supporting the government from outside, and lack of a firm
commitment from alliance partners themselves.

As per the Sri Lankan constitution, defeat of the budget need not necessarily mean the exit of the government or the dissolution of parliament, because the budget can be presented again by the same government or any other government which the President may cobble together.

Read more,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=