Lanka agrees to pass 21st Amendment soon

Aims at curbing the unfettered powers of President SL’s only refinery resumes service

Colombo, May 27: 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.

Prime Minister 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

Colombo, May 27: Sri Lanka’s only refinery, which was shut down more than two months ago, commenced operations on Friday and has begun receiving Russian crude, as the crisis-hit island nation tried to overcome its worst economic crisis since independence.

The more than fivedecade-old Iran-built Sapugaskanda oil refinery, which boasts of 50,000 barrel-per-day capacity, was temporarily shut down on March 20 following the non-availability of crude oil supplies due to the ongoing foreign exchange crisis that has crippled the country.

Sri Lanka became the latest Asian country to accept Russian crude after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on February 24 prompted a slew of crippling sanctions on Moscow.

The Sapugaskanda oil refinery will resume its operations for the first time since March 20 with a crude oil cargo being unloaded from tomorrow, the Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara said. — PTI

Constitution had to be passed as soon as possible,” a release from the Prime Minister’s Office

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.

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 Prime Minister also announced that during the week if any parties wished to seek further clarification they could do so from the Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapaksa. —

the draft Amendment. A general consensus was reached that a 21st Amendment to the