Tuesday, 17 March 2015 01:30
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By Jayashika Padmasiri
Following a series of discussions with Government members and senior officials of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) yesterday, the party said that they would not consent to the staging of a general election without the simultaneous implementation of constitutional and electoral reforms.
They asserted that the next election should be held under a mixed first-past-the-post system.
Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva said yesterday, at a media conference held in Colombo, that they would not allow Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to force President Sirisena to dissolve Parliament.
“After having discussions with the President, UPFA members all arrived at a decision that constitutional amendments and electoral reforms should be implemented together instead of bringing them piece by piece. The election should be held under a new system. At present Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is giving a wrong interpretation of the 100-day program. However, when elections are to be held and Parliament dissolved are decisions that can be taken by the President and in the 100-day program the President pledged to change the electoral system. Therefore now is the last opportunity to do that and we believe it should be done before going for another election,” he said. Commenting further about trimming the powers of the executive presidency, De Silva explained that they believed the president’s immunity, powers to dissolve Parliament after one year and powers to establish ministerial secretaries should be cancelled. However, De Silva added that the President should have the authority to dissolve Provincial Councils while he should also possess power over a few ministries such as the Defence Ministry. “Without the votes of the UPFA, the Government cannot implement any of these amendments. The United National Party (UNP) is only trying to introduce trimming powers of the executive presidency. But we want constitutional amendments and electoral reforms both together. We want a new election system and have spoken about this with the authorities and we plan to talk about this in Parliament tomorrow. No final decision has been taken regarding this matter yet. The Elections Commissioner is also supposed to submit a report on this to the President within seven days,” Silva added.
