ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe will need a referendum if he needs to extend his tenure by one year despite an error in the constitution’s 19th amendment when it was passed in 2015, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said.
Speculations have been on rise that the island nation’s constitution could allow President Wickremesinghe to extend his tenure by one year due to a mistake in the constitution, which was approved with more than two-third majority.
While all references to the six-year terms of both the president and parliament were changed to five years in line with the 19th Amendment, Article 83(b) was overlooked and left unchanged, giving a loophole to extend his term for President Wickremesinghe.
However, Minister Rajapakshe said despite an inconsistency, the rulers need both two-third majority and referendum to change 9 clauses in the constitution which also include the people’s voting right.
“There is an issue here. When the tenure of the president and parliament was reduced to five years, all the corresponding clauses have been reduced to five years. However, it has not been amended in this clause,” Rajapakshe told reporters at a media briefing in Colombo on Wednesday (12)
“But, because it was not changed in this clause, nobody has the right give a new interpretation to the constitution,” he said.
“So, this means if the president wants to extend his tenure, mandatorily, you need a two-third majority with minimum 150 MPs approving it in the parliament plus it has to be approved by a referendum. Nobody can give an artificial interpretation on this.”
“For referendum, you need to bring a proposal to the parliament and it has to be approved by a two-third majority, and then you have to wait until it is approved by a referendum. This is something you can’t do practically.”
The Election Commission has announced that the presidential election will be held between September 17 and October 16, this year.
The speculation on possible extension of the presidential tenure comes after Wickremesinghe-led center-right Unuted National Party’s General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara called for a referendum to postpone both presidential and parliamentary elections by two years to extend Wickremesinghe’s term to continue ongoing economic reforms.
However, his proposal met strong criticism. Wickremesinghe government has already postponed local government polls scheduled to be held in March last year indefinitely.
Wickremesinghe was elected as the president by the parliament in July 2022 after an unprecedented economic crisis grew into a political crisis with mass protests forced then leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country citing threats to his life.
Wickremesinghe after becoming the president secured an IMF deal, implemented some hard reforms including raising taxes, and planned to divest state assets to reduce losses.
Political analysts say despite his reforms to ensure the economic recovery from the economic crisis, Wickremesinghe is not the most populour leader among the general public.
Opposition politicians like center-right Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka are populour among the voters, but both of them have been largely silent on specific economic policy strategies on the recovery and economic growth. (Colombo/June 12/2024)