By Shamindra Ferdinando

Will it be possible for President Mahinda Rajapaksa to at least keep the number of cabinet ministers to less than 40 as UPFA leaders promised in the run-up to the April 8 general election?

It seems unlikely say ministerial sources, who pointed out that the CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman and UPFA heavyweights elected from Kandy are yet to receive ministerial portfolios.

Thondaman declined to accept the portfolio offered to him, while appointments to those elected from Kandy were stayed pending an inquiry into violence at Nawalapitiya electorate at the April 8 general election.

Among the successful candidates aspiring for ministerial portfolios are Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who polled the highest number of preference votes from Kandy, followed by Keheliya Rambukwella, S. B.Dissanayake, Faizer Mustapha and Dr. Sarath Amunugama. Of the 12 seats in the Kandy electoral district, the UPFA won eight.

Sources said that as the cabinet is already 38-strong (including the President) a move to accommodate the majority of the Kandy UPFA group would expand the Cabinet to over 40.

In the run-up to the April 8 general election, the UPFA gave an assurance at Anuradhapura Janadhipathi Mandiraya that the Cabinet would not exceed 35. The ruling coalition is on record as having said that an enlarged cabinet would not be re-appointed in a bid to cut down expenditure.