Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today afternoon signed a proclamation for holding of Presidential election ahead of the Parliamentary polls. The Presidential elections are likely to be scheduled in January next year. Giving rest to all speculation, the Sri Lankan President has issued instructions to his Secretary, Lalith Weerathunga to gazette the Presidential proclamation to enable the Commissioner of Elections to conduct the poll. The formal announcement of the dates for the election will be made by the Election Commissioner. The decision was taken today by the President in a meeting with his Alliance government members and a total of 26 political entities that supported his Government. Riding on the wave of the popularity in the aftermath of the LTTE, President Rajapaksa had already secured the opinion of the rank and file of his party workers to advance the Presidential election by two years at Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) convention on 15th of this month. Meanwhile, the main opposition party UNP in a press statement has demanded from the Government to hold free and fair elections and not resort to its now usual tactics of winning at any cost, as witnessed during the last few days by the disrupting of several opposition meetings by government politicians.<br/>