Sri Lanka: President Rajapaksa Seeks Support For Revoking 19th Amendment That Limits Powers

By

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has appealed for support of his efforts in carrying out his program for “the benefit of the country,” including the revoking of the 19th Amendment.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed by the 225-member Sri Lankan Parliament — with 215 voting in favor, one against, one abstained and seven were absent — in April 2015 under the Maithripala Sirisena presidency. The amendment envisages the dilution of many powers of Executive Presidency, which had been in force since 1978.

Rajapaksa said that during the election campaign he had never mentioned the name of the main opposition candidate at any point and had never criticized his  views. This, he said could be a Guinness record.

President Rajapaksa expressed these views during a meeting with the chief editors, news editors and directors of media institutions earlier this week.

Rajapaksa said in response to a question raised during the meeting that he required a 2/3rd majority in order to remove the obstacle placed by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. According to Rajapaksa, the independent commissions introduced by the 19th Amendment are in fact not independent.

The 19th amendment was a result of promise made by the previous President Maithripala Sirisena leading up to the 2015 Presidential Election and the repealing of the 18th Amendment that gave the President extreme powers.

Meanwhile, discussions were held at the Presidential Secretariat regarding the  future plans for the Education Ministry. During this meeting the president’s attention was focussed on the decision taken by the Education Ministry to omit political statements and the photographs of politicians from school text books.

President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa also insisted that computer knowledge should be included in the curriculum of all students above grade six. He also issued instructions to transform the 19 teacher training institutions into universities where teachers could obtain degrees in education. 

One thought on “Sri Lanka: President Rajapaksa Seeks Support For Revoking 19th Amendment That Limits Powers

  • March 8, 2020 at 4:08 am
    Permalink

    If the President requires a 2/3rd majority of its own party in the parliament to be effective, then clearly SriLanka needs to abolish the executive Presidency and adopt a truly democratic parliamentary system that can enable bipartisan cooperation.

    This president is a totalitarian whiner. Until, he can pave the way for totalitarian rule through constitutional change, the man will whine and complain and blame his ineffectiveness entirely on it. He is ineffective because he is bigoted, egoistic, partisan and extremely polarising. He wants to regain the powers that his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa enjoyed and criminally abused.

    Gotabaya Rajapaksa needs to remember that this a democratic country. 47.5% of the voters did not vote for him. He nonetheless has the responsibility of serving the entire country. He is ignorant of it. He doesn’t care for it.

    Gotabaya’s party, SLPP, must be denied a 2/3 majority to protect democracy in SriLanka.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *