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By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
Colombo, February 17: No matter how many times President Ranil Wickremesinghe says that the presidential election will be held on time as mandated by the constitution, the opposition parties continue to have a suspicion that he might do something at any time to postpone the elections.
There is a widespread perception among the people that this government will do whatever it takes to delay the elections as much as possible.
Last week it was reported that a public debate had been initiated by some politicians on the need to abolish the Executive Presidency (EP) as a last-ditch attempt to postpone the Presidential election.
Politicians like Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB ) MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, who is now at loggerheads with the Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, have expressed the opinion that the Presidential system should be abolished immediately without holding elections this year.
He was speaking at the inaugural event of the new electoral reforms campaign initiated by the National Movement for Social Justice led by former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.
It is said that the aim of this movement is to create awareness among the people about electoral reforms, including the abolition of EP. Although Jayasuriya asserted that he would never lobby for the postponement of any election, many parties say that the abolition of the Executive Presidency is being talked about again to postpone the Presidential election.
In this regard, President Wickremesinghe is also accused of mobilizing the support of some NGOs to initiate a dialogue to bring in new constitutional amendments for the abolition of EP.
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is also reportedly behind the latest move.
However, the media unit of the Presidential Secretariat last week issued a statement saying that the Presidential election would be held on time and parliamentary elections would be held next year. The statement further said that the Cabinet has approved a proposal to allocate Rs.10 billion for the elections to be held this year and that funds will be allocated in the 2025 budget for the parliamentary elections.
At the same time, at a media conference at his party office Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila said that he suspected that the government would postpone the Presidential election.
“The Supreme Court has already determined that a constitutional amendment to abolish the EP must be approved by a two-thirds majority in Parliament and also get the approval of the people in a national referendum. The steps to be taken after the approval of the people are detailed in Article 80 of the Constitution. But if someone files a petition against the validity of the referendum results, the President cannot certify the amendment bill until the Supreme Court decides whether the outcome of the referendum is valid or not. In other words, if a person challenges the validity of the referendum, the EP will not be abolished pending the Supreme Court determination. The incumbent President can remain in power until the dissolution of Parliament in August 2025. The referendum Act says every endeavour shall be made to conclude the hearing petitions within six months, but it is not mandatory.”
” Some argue that the present constitution is in operation until the President certifies the Constitutional Amendment and as a result the EP is still in operation. Hence there is no barrier to hold the Presidential election. Technically, it is true but not pragmatic. Opposition parties should not fall into this trap and help the government avoid the next Presidential election,” explained Gammanpila
Abolition of EP is indeed a boring story. There was a similar attempt made in October last year as well. It was said that Justice Minister Dr.Wijedasa Rajapakshe had submitted a cabinet paper containing the proposal for conducting parliamentary elections in a mixed system that includes the old First Past the Post (FPP) system and the Proportional Representation (PR) system in order to elect 160 of the 225 members of parliament through FPP and the remaining 65 on the basis of the proportion of votes received by political parties.
It is said that he suggested that a referendum be held on whether or not the EP should be abolished and a parliamentary system of government with an executive Prime Minister be brought back or not.
But the opposition parties vehemently criticised the proposal Rajapakshe of attempting on behalf of the government, to disrupt the national elections. After that Dr.Rajapakshe gave up the idea and went to the extent of saying that he did not submit such proposal to the cabinet.
Meantime, the SJB and the JVP led National People’s Power insisted that the parliament elected after the next general elections should decide on the abolition of EP after getting a new mandate from the people. They categorically said that any attempt to postpone the national elections will not be tolerated.
There is no provision in the constitution for postponing the Presidential election. The government does not have the two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the constitution. Some legal experts argue even that in order to postpone the election, the constitutional amendment would need to be passed by a two-thirds majority in parliament and approved by the people in a national referendum.
At the same time the support for the abolition of EP came from an unexpected quarters last week. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a staunch supporter of the EP said it would be desirable to abolish it, reinforcing doubts about the government’s intentions. Although he once promised to abolish the Presidential system after his first term, everyone knows what he did to further strengthen the powers of the President after taking office. He introduced the 18th Constitutional Amendment in his second term to eliminate the two-term limit for a president.
But the people did not give him a mandate for a third term. Such a person has now spoken in favour of abolishing the EP.
Similarly, another former president, Maithripala Sirisena, said last week that he came to know of an attempt to abolish the EP and that his Sri Lanka Freedom Party(SLFP ) would support it if a constitutional amendment is brought to do so.
However, as usual, there has been no reaction from President Wickremesinghe. The media unit of the Presidential Secretariat only released a statement saying that presidential election will be held on time.
History of Breach of Promises
No President who came to power after having promised to the people during the elections to abolish the EP kept the promise.
At the beginning of her second term, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was trying change the constitution in 2000 to abolish the EP and wanted to continue in power as an executive prime minister. She could not succeed in that endeavour.
Mahinda Rajapaksa wanted to stay in power for a long time by bringing in the 18th amendment. In January 2015, he ran for a third term in the presidential election and lost. Maithripala Sirisena, who promised to abolish the EP during the presidential election campaigns, did not keep it after coming to power. Not only that, during the new constitution drafting process carried out during the ‘Yahapalanaya ‘ government headed by him and Wickramasinghe, the SriLanka Freedom Party led by him submitted a proposal insisting on the retention of the EP. Any way it is true that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution brought in early 2015 during his tenure significantly curtailed the powers of the Presidency.
Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe, who was defeated twice in the Presidential elections, supported the common candidates of the opposition who promised to abolish the EP in in two consecutive presidential elections. In 2013, a document released by his United National Party as a policy statement that could form the basis of a new constitution included a proposal for abolishing EP.
In 2018, a draft constitution prepared and released by a group of experts appointed by the Maithri — Ranil government stated that the parliament should elect the President. In the same year Anura Kumara Dissanayake-led Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) introduced a constitutional amendment bill that would allow parliament to elect a non-executive President. The Sajith Premadasa-led SJP also proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow parliament to elect a non-executive president in 2021.
This is the history of failed attempts and broken promises to abolish the EP which has been in the existence for more than 45 years.
Wickramasinghe, who ceremonially opened the new session of Parliament for the first time after assuming office as the President and delivered a policy statement in the first week of August 2022, said that he would hand over the responsibility of forging a consensus on whether or not to abolish the EP to the People’s Assembly, which he intended to appoint. But that Assembly was not appointed and he did not talk about it after that.
If he really wanted to abolish the EP he could have achieved it by having negotiations with the opposition parties in the immediate aftermath of the ‘Aragalaya’ people’s uprising. Abolition of the much hated EP became the main slogan of the people during that time.
But after that, even though there were signals coming from the government showing an interest in abolishing the EP, it could not get the support of the parties as it was suspected that they were coming with the intention of avoiding elections.
It appears that the abolition of the Executive Presidency will for ever remain elusive.
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