Sri Lanka will benefit if 18A and 19A are abolished - President

President Maithripala Sirisena states that the country will benefit only if the 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution are abolished.

President Sirisena on Sunday called for repealing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which has curtailed the presidential powers, blaming it for the political instability in the country.

The 19A was the main election pledge of President Sirisena when he challenged former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Opposition’s common candidate in 2015. Rajapaksa in 2010 had moved the 18A which allowed him to contest the presidency any number of times by lifting the then existing two-term bar.

President Sirisena in 2015 introduced the 19A, which reduced the presidential term for five years while taking away his absolute control over the dissolution of Parliament.

The 19A has also barred two-term presidents from running for a third time.

However, the President, addressing a gathering here on Sunday, blamed the 19th Amendment for the political instability in the country.

“It has been four years since we formed the government. It is time to conduct a post-mortem with only four months to go before the next election,” he said, addressing a gathering here today.

“The biggest mistake of this government was the 19th Amendment. It created instability,” the President said.

“People accuse us of running an unstable government. They say that me and Prime Minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) are pulling in different directions...the reason is the 19A,” he said.

President Sirisena was made to introduce 19A as a concerted civil society action to make the presidency accountable to people. The reform process was expected to lead to a new Constitution by abolishing the presidential system — a long held demand since it was enacted in 1978.

-Agencies