Rajapakse to leave Lanka unity govt

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse is planning to break away from the ruling coalition, his brother announced Thursday, a move that could threaten constitutional reforms seen as crucial to postwar reconciliation.Basil Rajapakse formed a new party earlier this month to challenge President Maithripala Sirisena, who ousted his brother from power in January 2015 after a bitterly fought election.

He yesterday said the former strongman leader would defect from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that he once led to head the new party.

Sirisena formed a unity government with the right-wing United National Party after taking power and is the current head of the SLFP, but more than half its MPs remain loyal to Rajapakse.

"Our leader is Mahinda Rajapakse," Basil Rajapakse told reporters in Colombo. "It is the Mahinda Rajapakse vision that drives us."

Rajapakse tried to become prime minister at parliamentary elections held seven months after his shock defeat, but failed and now pulls strings from behind the scenes as a backbencher.

A formal break-up of the SLFP could deprive Sirisena of the two thirds majority required for constitutional reforms he has promised to bring about to ensure reconciliation after decades of ethnic war.

Sirisena's administration is currently working on a new constitution to share political power with the island's Tamil minority and end decades of ethnic unrest.