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Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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More powers for House: Rajapaksa

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Changes in presidential system

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to change the executive presidential system to make presidency more accountable to Parliament and restore powers of Parliament.

He was speaking at a function after unveiling the portrait of the first Executive President, J.R. Jayewardene, at the Parliament complex on Wednesday.

An experiment

Leader of the Opposition and United National Party (UNP) chief Ranil Wickremesinghe said Jayawardene introduced the executive presidency as an experiment and it was his desire to introduce "salutary constitutional changes" after studying response to it.

Mr. Rajapaksa's stand assumes importance in the context of the exercise for consensus on devolution and power sharing.

Since Jayawardene introduced the Constitution and switched over to executive presidency in 1978, there have been concerns in several quarters on the potential of the system to turning dictatorial.

The critics often cite Jayawardene's famous statement that he could do any thing except convert a man into a woman and vice-versa!

Mr. Rajapaksa's comments should also be seen in the light of the report of the Chairman of the All Parties Representative Conference (APRC), Tissa Vitharana.

The committee was constituted by Mr. Rajapaksa to help him in the resolution of the ethnic conflict through a package of devolution. Prof. Vitharana recommended in January switching over to executive prime ministership.

As per his recommendations, the transfer shall take place at the end of the current term of office of the President (2011). In the interim period, he shall be deemed an MP and shall be answerable to Parliament on the exercise of executive power.

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