By Shamindra Ferdinando Prof. Nalin de Silva has questioned the absence of a ‘mechanism’ to implement President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s strategies. The academic, in his regular piece in Sinhala posted online on Feb 5 discussed the limitations against the backdrop of President Rajapaksa’s address to the nation on Independence Day. In another commentary, posted online the […]
By Austin Fernando
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has recently said that the Provincial Council (PC) elections will be held when the ground situation is conducive. Minister Sarath Weerasekara insists on scrapping the PCs. Ambassador Nalin de Silva has opined that in the absence of elected PCs, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (13A) stands abolished.
There are three competing standpoints: (a) Legally, the PM believes the 13A is intact; (b) Conceptually, Minister Weerasekara believes 13A is live, but must be “killed”; and (c) Cavalierly, Ambassador de Silva thinks it is already dead! Thankfully, sanity prevailed when Sagara Kariyawasam MP, following the PM’s statement said: “The 13A remains part of the Constitution, and elections will have to be conducted” and “PCs cannot be indefinitely run by Governors and officials.”
SLPP reiterated its commitment to fresh elections
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Election Commission Chief attorney-at-law Nimal Punchihewa yesterday (16) said that the government could easily pave the way for Provincial Council polls by effecting a simple amendment to the Provincial Councils Act.
Punchihewa said so in response to
The Island query whether the EC was making preparations for PC polls in the wake of its five members meeting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Punchihewa said that as a new Act in respect of PCs had been endorsed in Parliament during the previous administration, polls couldn’t be held in the absence of a delimitation process.