TEHRAN Sri Lanka's main opposition demanded the government's resignation Tuesday as it failed to secure the required votes for a new constitution and suffered a major setback for its ethnic peace plan, AFP reported from Colombo.
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said President Chandrika Kumaratunga suffered a "constitutional defeat" as she was forced to put off indefinitely a vote on a controversial bill to adopt a de facto federal constitution.
"The president has suffered a constitutional defeat," Wickremesinghe said. "Her government must resign and then she must dissolve Parliament." Wickremesinghe said government attempts to bribe members of his United National Party (UNP) to muster the required two-thirds majority, or 150 votes, in the 225-member assembly had backfired.
The bill sought to turn Sri Lanka into a de facto federal state and grant greater autonomy to minority Tamils in exchange for peace in a country where more than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic bloodshed.