After protesters booted out former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa earlier this year, his allies are now looking to water down their demands to curb the powers of the island nation’s presidency.
Lawmakers were yesterday to start a debate on a constitutional amendment that would curb sweeping powers granted to the president to make the position more accountable to lawmakers.
The move is at the heart of plans by Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to calm public anger against Rajapaksa, who led the South Asian nation to its worst economic crisis since independence.
Photo: AFP
Still, some lawmakers allied with the Rajapaksa family have been clamoring to scale down the so-called “22nd amendment” by wresting back power to the president, delaying the date on which the executive could dissolve parliament and allowing dual citizens to hold positions in government.
Some are even pushing to scrap the amendments altogether in favor of drafting a new constitution.
Both moves would help ease a political comeback for the family that dominated the nation’s politics for two decades. Rajapaksa allies are hoping the tactics would also delay national elections — another key demand of the opposition and protesters — buying the former president and his family more time to regroup.
The political maneuvering comes as Wickremesinghe’s government is pushing for final approval of a US$2.9 billion IMF program to help the nation out of its economic malaise.
The IMF and Colombo’s creditors, including India, would be watching for signs that democratic reforms are under way in the country.
“There is a clear need to address structural reforms, in the context of the IMF agreement,” said Bhavani Fonseka, senior researcher at the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives. “The political reforms don’t even go halfway in meeting the demand of the people for system change.”
Any further dilution would raise the question of whether Wickremesinghe is doing the bare minimum “while setting the stage for the Rajapaksas,” Fonseka added.
The main push to step back from curbing presidential powers comes, not surprisingly, from within the Rajapaksas’ still-in-power Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party. Wickremesinghe depends on the support of its lawmakers to stay in office.
Sagara Kariyawasam, general secretary of the party and a close ally of former finance minister and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brother Basil, said some in the party were against amendments that were “targeting individuals,” alluding to the former ruling family.
Just before street protests erupted in the country, there were at least five family members in government apart from the then-president — including his older brother and former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa broadened the executive powers of the president to dismiss members of the Cabinet and the prime minister, as well as appoint judges and top government officials, soon after he came to power in 2019.
Sri Lanka’s main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya has aligned with a breakaway faction of the SLPP to oppose any dilutions to the amendments, while calling for elections to be held next year.
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