President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) today rejected a call for a federal solution to the ethnic minority question demanded by the chief minister of the Tamil-majority northern province.
Chief minister C V Wigneswaran led a large Tamil demonstration in Jaffna last week urging a federal solution by merging the north and eastern provinces.
"We will not grant a federal solution," Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport said.
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Explaining the ongoing process to formulate a new constitution for the country, de Silva said the constitution- making steering committee report which is being prepared will be subject to a review in parliament.
"We shall seek views of everyone before drafting the constitution. There may be the need to hold a referendum also," de Silva said in comments seen to pacify majority Sinhala concerns that the present unity government would opt to concede a Tamil federal state in the north and east.
The Sinhala majority has opposed the Tamil demand for federalism since the very early days of the ethnic conflict that sparked a 30-year civil war that killed 100,000 people.
Wigneswaran during his demonstration in Jaffna on Saturday said the Sinhalese fear federalism through ignorance and a federal solution would not mean a division of the island into ethnicity-based provinces.
Wigneswaran has been accused of accused of trying to fan communal flames and has also come under fire for organising the demonstration from his own Tamil National Alliance party.
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