Were the JVP/NPP to come to power, it would rapidly come into open and violent conflict with the working class, using communalist incitement and the security forces, with whom it has long colluded, to divide and suppress the working class.

By Libby George, Karin Strohecker and Uditha Jayasinghe LONDON (Reuters) -Sri Lanka reached a draft deal with creditors to restructure $12.5 billion of international bonds, it said on Thursday, in a major boost to the island nation's fragile recovery just two days before its presidential election.

Sri Lankans who usually vote along religious and ethnic lines will be keeping the state of the economy in mind when they vote Saturday on a new president.