Constitutional Council replaced:

Parliament Council mooted

*PC to include all ethnic groups

*In force even under dissolution

Rasika SOMARATHNA

The Constitutional Council (CC) introduced under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is to be replaced by a five member Parliamentary Council (PC), according to the amendments envisaged.

The five members include the Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader, a nominee MP of the Premier and a nominee MP of the Opposition Leader.

The PC will continue to function even in the event of a dissolution of Parliament and would be in force until the new Parliament sits. The PC will comprise members representing all major ethnic groups.

All nominations the PC makes are to be forwarded to the President within one week for observations and in the case of a failure to do so, the President has powers to make appointments.

Special provisions have been made to de-list members if necessary. Powers in this regard have been vested with the Parliament and the President.

This was revealed at a media briefing at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday attended by senior SLFP Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Susil Premajayantha and Nimal Siripala de Silva.

According to the Ministers, the proposed amendments envisaged include deletion of clause 2 of Article 31 which relates to restricting the number of terms of holding the office of the Presidency by an individual.

Minister Premajayanth said the President would sit in Parliament every three months sans voting powers but would be open for questions from all MPs.

He said the envisaged changes were not structural amendments and therefore a two-thirds majority in Parliament was enough for the amendments to become law. Minister Premajayanth said when former President JR Jayewardene made certain amendments to the Constitution, he did with a two thirds majority in Parliament and it did not require a referendum.

The Ministers answering queries from journalists said the proposals were unanimously approved by the Cabinet and the Government was confident of obtaining more than two-thirds of votes in Parliament to support it.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the SLFP stand in this regard was very clear and the party believed that the incumbent President who brought stability to both the country and the party and who won with the highest majority and ensured the highest Parliamentary allocation enjoyed by the SLFP ever, should be allowed to continue in accordance with the people’s will and national interest.

They said the amendments had not been prepared hastily but the provisions had been discussed with Opposition parties and other stakeholders over a long period.

They also asked the UNP to support the move, as this was done to ensure greater stability in the country, ensuring people’s sovereignty and accelerating the development process.

They said that there were many discrepancies in the 17th Amendment to the Constitution which according to them was done in a hasty manner and the proposed amendments would be more practical and would ensure greater efficiency.