At a recent ceremony, Minister Mangala Samaraweera described Mr. Wickremesinghe as a great democrat and invited him to join the government to strengthen democratic ideals. Mr. Samaraweera would have felt that Mr. Wickremesinghe was caught up in the fold of a gang that tries to hold the party to ransom. At a recent inner circle meeting, President Chandrika Kumaratunga is reported to have said that the government was planning to hold talks with the UNP and other parties in a bid to reach some consensus on a new constitution which she believed would help solve the ethnic conflict. Ministers S. B. Dissanayake, Mangala Samaraweera and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa among others have attended this meeting. But it appears that the UNP is not interested in such talks with its main objective being ousting the government by July.
Talks are underway to woo the support of other opposition parties.
The JVP will be one of the main targets, and winning over the JVP is not that easy. One of the conditions is that the four independent commissions to run elections, Police, the public service and the judiciary should be set up before the next parliamentary or presidential elections whichever comes first. The other condition is that the Parliamentary and Presidential elections should take place under a caretaker government. To counter the UNP moves, the government has also taken a number of steps. One such step may come in the form of a constitutional amendment to enable MPs to crossover without losing their seats.