Sri Lanka: Sirisena Submits Cabinet Paper To Abolish Executive Presidency

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena presented a special cabinet paper to today’s (Nov 18) cabinet meeting regarding the abolishing of executive presidency and introducing a new electoral system for its approval, thus fulfilling a pledge given in the Presidential election manifesto, under the theme “A Compassionate Maithri Governance-A Stable Country”. He was the opposition common Candidate at the Presidential Election held on January 8, 2015.

A subcommittee headed by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is to be appointed to finalize the process and a report by the Cabinet Subcommittee will be presented within the next two weeks to the Cabinet. Subsequent to that legislative draftsmen will draft the required amendments to the Constitution.

Sirisena believes that the Subcommittee will take into considerations of the views expressed by the people’s representatives and other political parties, that has an interest in this regard.