The president closely followed the re-poll in Nawalapitiya. He was not happy about key personalities in his party criticizing one another in public. He had given instructions to the police to provide special security to Nawalapitiya. After returning to Colombo after his Sinhala New Year holidays, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe discussed the current political situation with Karu Jayasuriya and Tissa Attanayake. After this discussion, Tissa Attanayake went to Nawalapitiya to give encouragement to the UNP voters in the area. Ravi Karunanayake had also made a separate trip to Nawalapitiya to give encouragement to UNP voters. Even the media did not take much interest in the Nawalapitiya re-poll, but the rumour that went around to the effect that Dr Sarath Amunugama may not get elected made the media stand up and take note.

Amunugama is widely respected both as a politician and as an academic. Some said that whether he would get elected at all depended on the result of the Nawalapitiya re-poll. While the battle for Nawalapitiya was on, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe paid a visit to President Rajapaksa, who welcomed him warmly and wished him all the best for the New Year which Wickremesinghe reciprocated equally warmly. The president told Wickremesinghe that Chamal Rajapaksa’s name had been suggested for the position of Speaker and that of Priyankara Jayaratne for the position of Deputy Speaker. Wickremesinghe said that he has no objections. Wickremesinghe said that since the Speaker in the last parliament had been a member of the UNP, the UPFA should have a turn this time. The discussion in political circles was that this cordial meeting between the president and the opposition leader augured well for the country.

Among the other matters discussed at this meeting was the entry of General Fonseka to Parliament. The parliamentary election has proved to be of some relief for Fonseka as both he and Sunil Handunnetti of the JVP were elected from the Colombo district. Many people thought the government would try to prevent the General from taking oaths as an MP. But the president who is a mature politician, was not inclined to make such experiments he declared that there were no obstacles to the general coming into Parliament. However, until the last moment, the JVP was not confident that he would be allowed to do so.

Chamal Rajapaksa had been reluctant to accept the position of Speaker at first. Even though the position was held in high esteem, Chamal was conscious of the power that a minister wielded, and was reluctant to become Speaker. However later he relented and accepted the position. After settling that problem, the president addressed himself to appointing the national list and choosing his ministerial team. Closeted with the president to decide on the ministerial team were Lalith Weeratunga, P.B.Jayasundara, Gamini Senarath and Basil Rajapaksa. The president also had lengthy discussions with Susil Premajayantha about the UPFA national list.

In the meantime, some defeated ministers of the government turned up at Temple Trees in an effort to get the president to appoint them to parliament on the national list. But the president was firmly resolved that no defeated candidate would be accommodated on the national list. However some defeated ministers did not give up that easily. They tried to get prominent Buddhist monks and other prominent people to speak to the president on their behalf. However none of these attempts proved to be fruitful. Many people were full of praise for the appointment of veteran SLFP women’s activist Kamala Ranatunga, J.R.P.Suriyapperuma, Rajiva Wijesinha and Malini Fonseka. Some people were unhappy that Professor Viswa Warnapala had been left out.

The initial discussions regarding the national list slots that were to be given to the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna were held on the 19th at Basil Rajapaksa’s office in the complex behind Temple Trees. The JNP was represented by its general secretary Priyanjith Vitharana, Achala Jagoda, Weerakumara Dissanayake and former MP Piyasiri Wijenayake. However the talks were inconclusive and it was decided to continue the discussion on the night of the 20th. When the discussions resumed on the 20th, the government side was not represented by just Basil Rajapaksa but also Susil Premajayantha, Maithripala Sirisena and Dullas Alahapperuma. Premajayantha stressed the point that the JNP could be given only one national list slot. Veerakumara Dissanayake said that was not acceptable and said that they need to consult their leader. He immediately phoned Wimal Weerawansa who was at the JNP headquarters and told him of the situation. By this time it was past 11.00 pm. Weerawansa told Basil that it was unreasonable to go back on commitments already made. Basil argued that if they allocate two seats to the JNP, they will have to do the same in the case of other allied parties as well.

Wimal pointed out that since the UPFA has got more than 125 seats from the districts, allocating two seats each to the smaller parties in the alliance was not an unreasonable request. At around 1.00 am the discussion once again ended inconclusively with Basil saying that this should be discussed with the president in the morning. The national list was to be handed over to the elections commissioner by 12.00 noon on the Wednesday Apr. 21). The previous day, what Weerawansa had told Premajayantha was to either appoint both their nominees or refrain from appointing either. On Wednesday morning when Weerawansa tried to contact the president he could not be reached. At around 10.00 am, Weerawansa heard that Premajayantha had handed over the national list to the elections commissioner. He also got to know that Achala Jagoda’s name had been included in the list without the concurrence of the JNP. On hearing this, Weerawansa tried to contact Basil Rajapaksa but he was unreachable as was Premajayantha. Thereupon he had contacted Dullas Alahapperuma and made known his protest.

That evening when the JNP politburo met Weerawansa said that the people had given the UPFA this overwhelming mandate not so that they could act in an arbitrary manner like this and that was seriously contemplating not accepting the portfolio that was to be given to his party.

Piyasiri Wijenayake cautioned that not accepting the portfolio would mean letting down the people who had reposed their trust in the JNP. Mohamed Mussamil, the aggrieved party in this case also expressed agreement with Wijenayake. Later Weerawansa summoned a press conference and said that it was Musammil who had exposed the attempt by the opposition to buy over MPs at great risk to his life and that what has been done to him is not what was anticipated by the people. Weerawansa, Jagoda and Weerakumara attended the inaugural session of parliament on the 22nd, but they did not stay on for the Speaker’s tea party that followed. Neither did they congratulate the newly elected Speaker. The president for his part was also angered by the protest mounted by Weerawansa and phoned Weerawansa expressed his displeasure at these goings on. The president said that problems should be solved in a more intelligent manner and internal problems should not be discussed in public.

Ranil Wickremesinghe also faced problems in appointing national list MPs. Many people were surprised at Rukman Senanayke being dropped. Wickremesinghe stated that he too approves of the decision made by Mahinda not to appoint defeated candidates on the national list. Digambaram and Mano Ganesan complicated the process for the UNP by claiming a seat each from the national list. Now both of them have decided that their parties would sit in parliament independently. Wickremesinghe made a valiant effort to resolve these problems. He summoned Tissa Attanayake, Karu Jayasuriya, Prabha Ganesan, Mangala Samaraweera and Rauff Hakeem and discussed the matter. Hakeem insisted on the two seats he had been promised. Prabha Ganesan also insisted that his brother Mano should also be appointed on the national list. Mangala Samaraweera also complained that his sidekick Ruwan Ferdinandesz was being overlooked.

Another aggrieved party was Rukman Senanayke. Wickremesinghe phoned him and tried to explain the difficult situation he was placed in, but Rukman had simply resigned from all posts he held in the party. K.N. Choksy was more philosophical about his exclusion from parliament. There were other aspirants to national list slots like Vajira Abeywardene, Sagala Ratnayake, Renuka Herath, Ranjith Aluvihare among others. However the leadership stuck to the decision that defeated candidates would not be appointed on the national list. Vajira has always stood by Wickremesinghe and he’s very disappointed. However at the request of his constituents in Galle, Vajira has decided to continue in politics.

In the meantime the president was faced with yet another test – appointing the prime minister. D.M.Jayaratne was an aspirant to the post for a long time. Maithripala Sirisena was also claiming the position while some said that the most suitable individual would be Basil Rajapaksa. In order to get over these claims and counter claims, some held that the premiership should be given to Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. The final victor was Jayaratne.

The appointment of cabinet ministers and deputy ministers was scheduled for Friday the 23rd. Except for the Kandy district MPs, all others were present at the presidential secretariat. D.M.Jayaratne was the first to be sworn. 37 cabinet ministers and 39 deputy ministers were sworn. When Weerawansa came up to be sworn, the president whispered something into his ear, but what was said is unkown. Even though Thondaman was present, he did not take his oaths as a minister. Some did not seem to be very happy with what they had got.

General Sarath Fonseka arrived in parliament for its opening in a military vehicle under heavy escort. There seemed to be an attempt to prevent the media from covering the arrival of Fonseka by taking them all in buses and queuing them up to enter parliament. One journalist however went up to Fonseka and spoke to him. The police were seen to approach this journalist in an attempt to intimidate her and scare her away. D.M.Jayaratne and A.H.M.Fowzie were among those seen chatting to Fonseka. Many UNP MPs were also seen speaking to General Fonseka.

The restaurant in parliament was usually open to the press but this time, they were prevented from entering it. Many parliamentary employees had approached General Fonseka and congratulated him. Some of them said that they had been waiting impatiently for him to come to parliament and that they were not sure what would happen to them now that they had been seen speaking to him.