Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday appealed to his Prime Minister to end a bitter power struggle and said the coalition government had failed to deliver promised reforms.
But he suffered a new blow when 16 of his MPs joined the Opposition.
Mr. Sirisena told parliament that the coalition partners should commit to a reform agenda to revive the island nation. “This is not a time for parties to engage in a power struggle,” Mr. Sirisena said after opening a new session of Parliament.
“Although we formed a coalition government in August 2015, we still have not politically matured to accept and work within this reality. Consensus government is still a foreign concept to us.”
He urged the government dominated by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) to work towards ethnic reconciliation to rebuild the country.
His remarks came a day after he announced he will not retire at the end of his term in January 2020 despite a previous pledge. That pits him against Mr. Wickremesinghe who also wants to contest the presidency.
Relations between Mr. Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mr. Wickremesinghe’s UNP have soured in recent months. They blame each other for a humiliating defeat in February’s local council elections.
