Lanka's daughter of destiny departs

The 60-year-old president came to power in 1994 pledging to abolish the all-powerful executive presidency within six months.

Instead she enjoyed two terms in office and went to the Supreme Court to try to extend her stay into 2006. But her rein finally ends on Thursday when elections to replace her are held.

Dubbed by loyalists as Sri Lanka's daughter of destiny, Kumaratunga must also give up leadership of the centrist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which her late prime minister father Solomon Bandaranaike launched in 1951.

After winning the presidency, Kumaratunga appointed her mother Sirima Bandaranaike as prime minister. The elder woman had already held the post twice before and had been billed as the world's first elected woman premier in 1960.

The mother-daughter combination at the top was also a world first.

But the scion of the Kumaratunga dynasty will lose her hold over the SLFP if her own nominee for the presidency, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, wins the November 17 presidential vote.

Rajapakse is at loggerheads with his mentor over key policy issues -- the handling of the economy as well as the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels.