SL leaders agree to pass 21st Amendment soon

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s top political leaders met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday and discussed key constitutional amendments and agreed that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution aimed at curbing the unfettered powers of the President should be passed as soon as possible. He noted that a final meeting has been scheduled for June 3 due to the Tamil National Alliance being unable to attend Friday’s meeting.

Sri Lanka’s senior political leaders held a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday and discussed key constitutional amendments and agreed that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution aimed at curbing the unfettered powers of the President had to be passed as soon as possible.

The 21st Amendment is expected to annul the 20A which gave unlimited powers to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after abolishing the 19th Amendment which had made Parliament powerful over the president. PM Wickremesinghe met the political party leaders to discuss the draft 21st Amendment.

The purpose of Friday’s meeting was to allow the party leaders to present their observations regarding the draft Amendment.

“A general consensus was reached that a 21st Amendment to the Constitution had to be passed as soon as possible,” a release from the Prime Minister’s Office said. Following the discussions, it was decided that as the Tamil National Alliance could not attend Friday’s meeting, a final meeting will be held on next Friday with the TNA’s attendance, so as to finalise the draft.

The PM also announced that if any parties wished to seek further clarification they could do so from the Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapaksa. The constitutional reform was a major plank of agreement between Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe when he took charge.

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