Sweeping constitutional reforms mooted by National Movement for Social Justice

• Cabinet limited to strictly 25
• Non-executive President appointed by Parliament and advised by Executive PM
• Two VPs drawn from different communities to holder of Presidential office
• Crossover MPs to lose Parliamentary seats

By Dharisha Bastians

A civil society movement working on the abolishment of the executive presidency has called on political parties to include a sweeping set of constitutional reforms in their policy statements at a future election and take immediate steps to enact the amendments soon after the polls.  

The drafting committee of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) is currently preparing a draft bill that establishes a Parliamentary form of Government with a non-executive President, two Vice Presidents drawn from the minority communities and a cabinet limited to strictly 25 ministers including deputy ministers.

The proposals for constitutional reform envision a President that is elected by Parliament who will act on the advice of the Prime Minister. The President will appoint as Prime Minister, a MP who in his opinion, commands the support of the majority of Members of Parliament. The President will also head the caretaker government that the new provisions call for during election time.



The proposed caretaker government during Parliamentary elections will have powers afforded to cabinet ministers and will consist of the President, the two Vice Presidents and a member each appointed by the outgoing Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition who shall not be candidates at the Parliamentary elections.

The new proposals seek to establish two VP positions, drawn from different communities to which the President belongs who will also be elected by Parliament.

The reforms seek to shorten the life span of parliament to five years from the current six years. It also seeks to de-politicise organs of the state with the reinstatement of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution with amendments and a stronger constitutional council and the repeal of the 18th Amendment.

The Constitutional Council will govern appointments to the upper Judiciary, the Judicial Service Commission other than the Chairman, Attorney General, Auditor General, Inspector-General of Police, Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) Secretary-General of Parliament, while members of the Elections Commission, Public Service Commission, National Police Commission Human Rights Commission, Bribery Commission Finance Commission and Delimitation Commission  are to be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.

The NMSJ is also seeking a change of electoral system to be a combination of the first-past-the-post (FPP) and proportional representation (PR) systems. The reforms seek to abolish Preferential voting.

Under the new electoral system, MPs elected under the PR system lose their seats if they cease to be members of the Party. Those vacancies would then be filled by the party. MPs elected on FPP lose their seats but a by-election will be held.

“Presently, although an MP who loses membership of the Party loses his seat unless the Supreme Court holds that his expulsion is invalid, MPs go to the District Court and get an injunction, stalling disciplinary proceedings. This could be prevented by providing that the Supreme Court shall have sole and exclusive jurisdiction relating to disciplinary proceedings relating to MPs. This amendment need not wait till a new electoral system is agreed upon,” NMSJ proposes.

The reforms also envision a new fundamental rights chapter and the abolishing of ‘urgent bills’ and judicial review of legislation post enactment of laws. The NMSJ is also proposing that the system proposed in the Draft Constitution of 2000 be introduced to govern the removal of judges of the upper Judiciary.

“An inquiry will be held, in the case of the Chief Justice by a committee consisting of three persons each of whom hold, or have held, office as a judge in the highest court of any Commonwealth country and in the case of any other judge by a committee consisting of three persons former or present Judges of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal.

“The procedure to be followed, the mode of proof, burden of proof and the standard of proof of any alleged misbehaviour or incapacity and the right of the Chief Justice or such Judge to appear before and be heard by such committee in person or by representative shall be provided by law,” the NMSJ proposals said.

At present, Sinhala is the official Language, Tamil is also an official language and English is the link language. Sinhala and Tamil shall be declared as official languages while all three languages shall be national languages, as was proposed in the Constitution Bill of 2000.