Convened on PM’S request

SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara, who commented on the controversy over the convening of a special Cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss the 20th Amendment, said yesterday it was done by President Maithripala Sirisena on the written request of Prime Minister

Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He said the meeting to discus the abolition of the executive presidency was called off midway after several ministers including UNP deputy leader Sajith Premadasa and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem raised strong objections to the move and neither was any interest shown by the President.

They were of the view that it was not proper to abolish the executive presidency at a time when a presidential election has been declared.

The letter sent to President Sirisena under the heading ‘Cabinet Memorandum -Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution’ on Monday under the signature of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe says,“in keeping with the concept of good governance, the national interest demands to abolish the Executive Presidency and several other Constitutional reforms in order to strengthen the Parliamentary system of governance and sovereignty of the people.” “A Bill titled “Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution”, mainly for the purpose of abolishing the Executive Presidency, has been presented to Parliament by JVP MP Vijitha Herath, pursuant to the said Bill being published in the Gazette Extraordinary of July 9, 2018, the Bill was duly placed on the Order Paper of Parliament.