S. Lanka to Limit President's Power to Sack Parliament

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 20, 2002

S. Lanka to Limit President's Power to Sack Parliament

Sri Lankan government on Thursday introduced an amendment to the country's constitution which will curb the president's power to dissolve parliament.

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Sri Lankan government on Thursday introduced an amendment to the country's constitution which will curb the president's power to dissolve parliament.

A senior parliamentary official said that House leader W.J.M. Lokubandara had presented the 19th amendment to the country's constitution adopted in 1978.

If it becomes law the amendment will prevent President Chandrika Kumaratunga from exercising her constitutional prerogative to dismiss the present parliament after midnight of Dec. 5 this year.

The government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe which is locked in an uneasy co-habitation with Kumaratunga as the executive president claims that the presidential power to dissolve parliament after Dec. 5 impedes negotiations between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels to end the ethnic conflict that has claimed over 64,000 lives.

"We need political stability to exercise the public mandate we received for a full term of six years. We cannot allow the president to arbitrarily cut short our term," government spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris said.

Wickremesinghe's United National Party defeated Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) in December 2001 parliamentary election. However, Kumaratunga, who was elected separately will continue in office till the year 2005.

The government is short of the 150 votes required in the 225-member parliament to see the passage of the bill.

It needs at least 21 members from the main opposition PA to support the bill in order for it to become law.

The government said that opposition MPs are supportive of the bill as they do not want to face another election -- the third in a row.

Sri Lanka held presidential elections in December 1999, followed by parliamentary elections in October 2000 and December 2001.

At least one senior member of the main opposition party, the former minister of Education Richard Pathirana has publicly vowed to support the amendment.

The parliamentary debate and the voting on the bill is not expected to take place until early October, government sources said.

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