Lankan polls billed as referendum on peace

The deals by Rajapakse, who is the ruling Freedom Party nominee for presidential elections due by the end of 2005, threaten to upset a Norwegian-backed peace bid aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed.

A spokesman for one of the parties, the all-monk National Heritage, said the agreements were squarely aimed at getting voters to focus on what all three parties view as the failure of the peace process.

"The election is a referendum on the unitary state, it is a referendum on the role of Norway, it is a referendum against terrorism," said spokesman Udaya Gammanpila.

Rajapakse's agreements with the National Heritage and the main Marxist parties include the renegotiation of a truce with the Tamil Tigers and the abandoning of tsunami aid and federal power-sharing deals with the rebels.

The power-sharing deals were reached under Norway's mediation, but the parties say they were "biased towards Tigers."

"I will protect the unitary character of the country," Rajapakse said Tuesday at one of Buddhism's holiest shrines, the Temple of the Tooth, in the hill town of Kandy.

Analysts said the agreements by the nationalist parties have sharpened the election focus in the majority-Buddhist and majority Sinhalese nation of 19.5 million people.

"The prime minister has turned the election into a referendum on the peace process," said Sunanda Deshapriya, a director at the private Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank.

"The PM's deal with the Marxists actually helps the Tigers to show the rest of the world that Sinhalese politicians are not willing to concede anything."