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Constitutional Council waste of time and money - GL

by Nadira Gunatilleke

The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has focused its full attention towards changing the present Constitution. The Freedom Alliance repeats they will replace the present Constitution.

The problem that arises is the manner in which the Constitution is being implemented by the President, Cabinet spokesman Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said.

He said the President should implement the provisions of the Constitution in a justifiable and ethical way. The Constitutional Council had made arrangements to appoint the Elections Commission but the President did not appoint it. Prof. Peiris said the Constitutional Council's appointment was a waste of time and money.

He said problems have surfaced as a result of flouting the provisions of the Constitution and it was absurd to blame the Constitution.

Prof. Peiris recalled that in 1995, the President made a written pledge to the JVP to abolish the Executive Presidency on or before July 15. The JVP withdrew its Presidential candidate Nihal Galappaththi responding to the President's promise. But the President broke the promise.

Addressing Parliament on January 6, 1995, the President made the same promise for the second time and said she will abolish the Executive Presidency and re-introduce the Parliamentary system. But the President broke the same promise for the second time, Prof. Peiris said.

He said the President cannot stand another term of office and was keen to abolish the Executive Presidency at the ninth year.

"The country's problem is not the Executive Presidency but attaining peace and economic development," the minister said.

The minister noted that the PA-JVP Alliance hold contradictory views on resolving the ethnic problem and added that the President herself initially rejected the LTTE's ISGA proposals but later claimed it could be a starting point for negotiations.

Prof. Peiris claimed the State media was engaged in a mud slinging campaign against the Government and news releases that should emanate from the Elections Commissioner's office come from the President's office.

He said the Constitutional Council rejected the President's decision to extend the IGP's service. "If the President ignored such a meaningful Council it served no purpose of functioning," he added.

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