CONSTITUTIONAL amendments to trim the government’s executive powers were passed in Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday after a flurry of deal-making. The changes, which will limit presidential office to two terms and increase the independence of key government departments, passed with a two-thirds majority through the deeply divided Parliament.
The reforms, the 19th amendment to the constitution, were seen as critical after Mr. Sirisena’s predecessor President Mahinda Rajapaksa was accused of spearheading creeping authoritarianism during his decade in power. Reducing presidential powers was one of President Maithripala Sirisena’s key election promises and the passing of the amendment was seen as a litmus test for his four-month old administration.
Reforms were hobbled by opposition lawmakers who wanted Mr. Sirisena to retain some powers including the ability to appoint the cabinet. They also demanded that nomination of seven parliamentarians to a special 10-member constitutional council that would establish an independent police, judiciary, election and public-service commissions be made by him. The amendments reinstate a two-term limit for presidents, which was waved earlier by former President Rajapaksa to allow him to contest for the third term
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said those concessions were reluctantly given after negotiations late Monday night. The discussions Tuesday resulted in 211 votes for the amendments from the 225-seat parliament.
Mr. Sirisena, who came to power backed by a broad coalition, had pledged to reduce presidential powers within 100 days and promised to call a parliamentary election but he faced a struggle to unite his party with opposition politicians to obtain the requisite number of votes to pass the amendments. Mr. Sirisena was sworn in as the fifth executive president of Sri Lanka in January. With the passing of the amendment Tuesday Mr. Sirisena narrowly missed his self-imposed 100-day deadline, which fell on April 23.
Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state-like ours, but governed by a presidential system. A unitary state is governed under a single authority in which the central government is ultimately supreme and any administrative unit exercises powers that their central government chooses to delegate. The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government.
By reducing the power of the executive branch, Sri Lankan parliament has in fact voted to lessen the dominance of the executive at the expense of the legislative and judiciary, in effect diminishing the power of the executive. It is a sign of a healthy democracy. Our government, dominated by the legislative wing, could learn more from the Sri Lankan system as to how to exercise its real power to restraint excessive concentration of power in the hand of the executive. Moreover, what the new amendment restraining the presidential office to two terms suggest is that in Bangladesh similar limit may be capped on persons to become head of the government to end domination of individuals or families in politics by making room for new leaders to serve the nation.
