Personality Clash

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Chandrika Kumaratunga
President, 58
• Elected: November 1994
• Powers: Appoints the Prime Minister. Can suspend or dissolve Parliament, call elections and declare state of emergency. Commands the military
• Style: Regal (her father and mother were both Prime Ministers), combative, and tough (her father and husband were both assassinated). Friends say she became even more resolute after losing the use of one eye in a Tiger bomb attack in 1999
• View of Prime Minister: That he stole the peace process she started and is conceding too much to the Tigers

Ranil Wickremesinghe
Prime Minister, 54 • Elected: December 2001
• Powers: Heads the government because his party holds a parliamentary majority. But needs the President's approval for everything from forming his Cabinet to conducting foreign policy
• Style: Laid-back, aloof and shies from confrontation
• View of President: Previously too polite to say. Now accuses her of being undemocratic and power-hungry