Colombo: The Sri Lankan Parliament was dissolved on Friday, six days ahead of the scheduled end of its six-year term, and a general election ordered for October 10.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who failed to get parliamentary approval for her constitutional reforms bill earlier this month, appealed to the people to give her a fresh mandate to implement her reform proposals, aimed at resolving the country's drawn-out ethnic conflict. She will require two-thirds majority support in the 225- member house to pass the new draft constitution.

About a dozen political parties will participate in the coming elections, joining either of the two alliances, led by the ruling People's Alliance (PA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Left-wing Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party have already announced that they would contest under the PA banner. The ruling alliance is meeting its constituent parties to finalize the allocation of seats, Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Alavi Mowlana said.

The PA has already begun organizing pre-election meetings at grassroots levels, where the allocation of seats for each party will be decided by the end of this week, he said.

The UNP, led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, says it is fully prepared to face the polls. UNP spokesman Karunasena Koddituwakku said: "Our well- oiled mechanism has been set in motion since early January this year in anticipation for the elections. After the victory we scored over the Constitution bill last week, our candidates are in a jubilant mood," he said.

Political analysts predict a close finish between the PA and the UNP. "Though the PA hopes to ride on the popularity of President Kumaratunga, the voter will consider many other issues like the constitutional reforms and cost of living and those will not be in the favour of the ruling party," said political commentator Dayan Jayathilake.

Kumaratunga defeated Wickremesinghe in last year's presidential election by polling 51 percent votes. She will remain head of the government for the next six years irrespective of the outcome of the parliamentary elections. "But an opposition majority Parliament will be able to block the president's actions, and that could lead to a constitutional crisis," he said.

The popularity of the PA administration has taken a dip in recent months, largely owing to the high cost of living and the military reversals at the hands of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north and east of the country. Her reforms package ran into heavy weather in the face of opposition by the Sinhala Buddhists hardliners.

The government has taken great pains to explain that the price increase in several essential commodities was inevitable since money was required to fight the war with the LTTE, which was dangerously close to capturing Jaffna town in the northern peninsula by that name.

The government, according to well-informed defense sources, had spent an additional $800 million since April to procure arms and ammunition, easily the biggest single purchase in the country's 17-year-old separatist war. This figure could increase if the fighting intensified.

The increase in prices on essential consumer items affected by the government had badly hit the middle class and low-income groups. The depreciation of the rupee also contributed to increase in prices.

A new entrant to the election arena is the Sihala Urmaya, or National Heritage, which is campaigning for the rights of the majority Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the island's 18-odd million population.(69 percent Buddhists and 5 percent Christians).

The Heritage is against any form of divisions of the country, whether it is in the form of federalism or provincial councils and has vowed to campaign in support of this in the coming elections.

It has accused both the government and the UNP of promising too much to the minorities in exchange for cheap votes and maintains that the war in the north and east was not an ethnic conflict but a terrorist move to divide the country, which has to be stopped.

The left-wing radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which had only a single member in the last Parliament, hopes to increase its tally to at least 10 members in order to have a decisive role in a possible hung Parliament.

India Abroad News Service