Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena reiterated his absolute refusal to allow a merger of the North-East or a federal Tamil state saying he would have to be killed before he would allow either of the two.
Speaking to the SLFP electoral organisers at a meeting in Colombo yesterday, Sirisena said that "some groups had been adamant about the merger of the North and East and the formation of a federal state".
The two demands had been pushed by Tamil voters and were key parts of the Tamil National Alliance's previous election manifestoes.
Commenting on the ongoing political crisis in Sri Lanka following his sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sirisena vowed he "would not remain as president even for an hour if Ranil Wickremesinghe was reappointed as prime minister" by parliament, which is set to reconvene on November 5.
