COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's main opposition party Tuesday scrapped a longstanding promise to give greater autonomy to minority Tamils, as it tries to win over hardline sections of the Sinhalese majority before a general election. In its manifesto launched in Colombo, former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said it would refuse to grant more powers to a local council in the Tamils' northern heartland if it won the August 17 election.
Before he was toppled in presidential polls in January, Rajapakse had promised to build on a law passed in 1987 giving some autonomy to ethnic Tamils.
The law was brokered by neighbouring India to try to end a decades-long conflict between Sri Lanka's military and Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
Rajapakse, an ethnic Sinhalese, remains popular among big sections of the island's largest community for overseeing the defeat of the rebels in 2009.