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| Sunday, 18 August 2002 |
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Govt. firm on pruning President's powers : Over 20 PA MPs to support Const. change by S. Selvakumar Despite firm assurances by President Chandrika Kumaratunga that she will not resort to the constitutional option of dissolving Parliament anytime after December 5, 2002 the government will go ahead with amendments to the constitution to drastically cut down her powers before the commencement of peace talks with the LTTE scheduled in mid September authoritative governmental sources revealed. Though the government does not at present have the two thirds majority to amend the constitution, 23 PA Parliamentarians have pledged firm backing to the government on the amendments, sources further said. Another five PA Parliamentarians, according to the source are 'on the fence'. Authoritative People's Alliance officials, however, were not available for comment yesterday. A total of 31 PA Parliamentarians including four former PA ministers have had a series of talks with the UNF hierarchy during the last fortnight. These PA MPs did not meet their UNF counterparts together, but at various dates and venues. According to sources, there were two main reasons for these PA Parliamentarians to pledge their support to the government. The most mundane of it being that most of these PA MPs did not wish to face another election in the event of the UNF passing a resolution in Parliament and requesting the President to dissolve the House or in the event of President Kumaratunga taking advantage of the constitutional option to dissolve Parliament. Another group of PA Mps who are sure of re-election in the event of a general election and also having the required resources to fight another election strongly feel that the current peace process would fall by the wayside if the country goes to the polls again. The government intends to introduce a bill in Parliament early September, amalgamating two provisions, one being the conscience vote where Opposition MPs voting with the government cannot be expelled from their party thus enabling them to retain their Parliamentary seats and also to clip the wings of the President invalidating her constitutional option to dissolve the House one year after the previous general elections. Meanwhile, PA assurances that the President could sign a memorandum of Understanding with the UNF government that she will not dissolve Parliament after December 5, 2002 and also a written assurance to the Speaker that she will not do so, were pooh poohed by many PA stalwarts who cited two instances in the past. The first being her written assurance to the JVP in 1994 that she would abolish the executive presidency by July 15, 1995 and the other being her assurance last year that she would not dissolve Parliament even if the PA loses its Parliamentary majority despite threats of cross overs from the PA to the then Opposition UNP. With 23 PA Parliamentarians firmly in the government's camp the UNF is now going ahead with the preliminaries to introduce the all important bill early September and has also tentatively planned a huge mass rally in Colombo on September 9 to educate the masses on the developing scenario. This rally, where over a million people are expected to converge in Colombo will be on the same lines as that of the Janabala Meheyuma of the then Opposition UNP held on July 19, last year. Meanwhile, Chief Opposition Whip and former Minister Mangala Samaraweera at a Colombo press conference on Friday evening challenged the government to introduce the constitutional amendment bill in Parliament and said that the UNF getting a two thirds majority is only a day dream. The same sentiments were also expressed by Opposition spokesman Dr. Sarath Amunugama. |
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