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| Saturday, 15 September 2001 |
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A nineteen member new Cabinet was sworn in yesterday morning at a simple but solemn ceremony held at President's House, Colombo. Since the leader of the CWC Arumugam Thondaman was out of the country he was not present at the ceremony. He was to be sworn in later as a Cabinet Minister. This was a sequel to the Memorandum of Understanding signed on September 5, 2001 between the PA and the JVP where in they agreed inter alia to reduce the number of Cabinet Ministers to twenty. The People's Alliance also had also pledged to limit the number of Cabinet Ministers to 20 in their original Manifesto for the 1994 General elections. Most of the Senior Ministers are back in the Cabinet except for Prof. G.L.Peiris and S.B. Dissanayake, who together with Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Mahinda Wijesekera resigned their portfolios on September 11 and informed the President of their desire not to accept portfolios in the new Cabinet. Several former Ministers have been sworn in as Deputy Ministers in view of the reduced number of Ministries. For the same reason, several former Deputy Ministers have not been given portfolios. With the reduction in the number of Ministries, the government has implemented yet another proposal included in the MoU signed between the PA and the JVP. Earlier the President had cancelled the Referendum fixed for October 18 and reconvened the Parliament before September 7 even prior to signing the MoU. The PA and the JVP held conclusive talks yesterday night to fine tune the Government's amendments to the draft 17th Amendment to the Constitution that will establish five independent Commissions. The 17th Amendment is likely to be debated and passed by Parliament by September 25. The Constitutional Council stipulated in the 17th Amendment is likely to be formed prior to October 5. |
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