Even as Sri Lanka awaits a formal announcement on dates for a Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the leader of the newly-floated 18-party United National Front (UNF), Ranil Wickremesinghe has advocated switch over from the present Presidential to a model akin to the Indian system.<br/>A booklet outlining the shift from the Presidential to Parliamentary form of democracy with an Executive Prime Minister and President as head of the Constitution was presented by Mr. Wickremesinghe to monks at a Temple. <br/>Earlier, he had said the alliance headed by him could consider nomination of the just retired General Sarath Fonseka as a consensus Presidential candidate to take on the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa only if the former Army chief endorsed a 10-point common minimum programme with abolition or substantial dilution of powers of the Executive Presidency as a key component.<br/>Political and diplomatic observers have billed the Presidential election as the mother of all political battles in the 48-year-old history of the island nation. For the first time, there is a prospect of a retired Army Chief and a former commander of the Army challenging the incumbent President who is also the Supreme Commander of the armed forces.<br/>