Here’s what you should know about Sri Lanka’s constitutional changes

Team Udayavani, Sep 7, 2020, 11:23 AM IST

Sri Lanka’s newly elected government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has drafted constitutional changes that restore sweeping executive powers to his office.

The new amendment will give President Gotabaya Rajapaksa the power to dissolve parliament and also offer him full immunity against prosecution

The move comes two days after the government appointed a committee to draft the 20th amendment and give the country’s president unprecedented political power.

The 19th Amendment was brought in by the previous Yahapalanya government of the United National Front of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

According to Business Standard, The changes include replacing Constitutional Council with a weakened Parliamentary Council made up of only legislators and no civil society members, while the appointment of members to the Elections Commission, the Human Rights Commission and five other bodies will be made by the executive.

While the provisions introduced by the 19th amendment that made it mandatory for the President to seek the advice of the Prime Minister before appointing and removing ministers and junior ministers will be abolished

In response to the publication of the draft, Dayan Jayathilake, Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to Russia, France and the UN, told Arab News that “the centralization of powers in the hands of a single person is dictatorial, despotic, autocratic and tyrannical.”