The Sri Lankan President's office said that President Chandrika Kumaratunga was not contemplating to put off presidential elections, said a report of The Island newspaper on Wednesday.

Referring to Kumaratunga's recent speech at Hambantota where she launched the nation re-building process, President's office said that the president has been misquoted.

"she was referring very clearly to the parliamentary election which is due five years from now, and the president has had no previous record of postponing elections," the office was quoted as saying.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), said Monday in the northwestern provincial town of Wariyapola that elections are a main part of the democratic process and that they must be held when they are due.

The UNP leader was referring to a public statement by President Kumaratunga who said last week that no election is needed for the next five years as the country would be geared up to complete the task of rebuilding the country after the tsunami destruction.

Although it was not clear what Kumaratunga had meant by saying no elections for the next five years, the UNP argues that the president has designs to postpone the next presidential election which must be held at the end of 2005 or in 2006.

Kumaratunga is in her second term and there is no clarity as to when it would end.

She cited a secret oath taking ceremony held in the year 2000 which empowers her to hold the post until 2006.

However, the UNP maintains that the next presidential election must be held by December this year, six years since the last presidential election held in December 1999.

Wickremesinghe has already declared his candidate and is opposed to Kumaratunga's plans to change the constitution thereby leading to the abolition of the presidential system of the government.

Source: Xinhua