{"id":101561,"date":"2020-04-26T01:54:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T08:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101561"},"modified":"2020-04-26T01:56:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T08:56:21","slug":"is-a-constitutional-coup-brewing-to-reconvene-sri-lankas-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/26\/is-a-constitutional-coup-brewing-to-reconvene-sri-lankas-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a constitutional coup brewing to reconvene Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The calls to reconvene\nParliament<\/strong> come from the\nsame coterie of people who orchestrated regime change in 2015 capitalizing on a\nPresidential Election victory to bring to power a minority UNP government and\nplace Ranil as PM without removing the sitting PM. A hurriedly cobbled\n\u2018national government\u2019 was created to dish out various roles to their co-partners\nwho were made Opposition Leader and Chief Government Whip. Little needs to be\nsaid of the Speaker\u2019s role in the drama that unfolded. These actors used every\ntrick in the book to delay elections and prevent holding of elections for 3\nyears. The Election Commission showed little teeth in upholding the people\u2019s\nright for elections throughout and when the former Speaker now declares I am\nbound to uphold judiciary\u2019s decision\u2019 that\u2019s like the cat popping out of the\nbag before schedule! The spilling of intent warrants the government to be alert\nto all avenues this bandwagon is likely to take and the influences they are\nlikely to make tapping their powerful friends overseas. The drawback this time\nmay be the difficulty in handpicking some for overseas jaunts in view of\ncovid-19. Is a constitutional coup\nbrewing to reconvene Parliament? Are those that filed cases against Oct2018\ndissolution of Parliament about to do a repeat performance!  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nyou see a pattern in the chorus demanding reconvening of Parliament, it is\nimportant to wonder, why! The calls to declare null & void the President\u2019s\ndissolution of Parliament and reconvene Parliament is certainly not to do any\nfavors to the People. We saw that when the same parties objected to the former\nPresident dissolving Parliament, declaring elections and allowing the People to\nvote who they wanted. The one\u2019s that objected to that decision and dashed to\nfile against the dissolution are the very same objecting to the dissolution by\nthe current president. In both cases the reason for their knee-jerk reactions\nwas to somehow ensure their boys and girls remained in power and inside\nParliament. By their actions they impeded the people\u2019s right to exercise their\nvote and decide who they wanted to elect and return to Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nOctober 2018, the shock came when the then President suddenly removed the PM.\nBut the \u2018democracy upholding\u2019 PM refused to vacate and was encouraged not to do\nso by foreign envoys regularly visiting him to provide free international advice.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nirony & hilarious aspect was that among the 10 petitioners demanding\nre-instating the Govt of Ranil as PM was the country\u2019s Opposition (TNA) and the\nChief Govt Whip\u2019s Party (JVP), SLMC, ACMC, TPA as well as the supposedly\nunbiased civil society entities CPA and even the election commission member\nHoole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconstitutional crisis in Oct2018 came about following the complications,\ncontradictions and confusions by those that drafted the 19a. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailed as the world\u2019s best constitutional amendment\nthe 19a clipped powers of the President to summon, prorogue, dissolve\nParliament by setting a limit of 4 \u00bd via amendment to Article 70(1) but then\nfelt sorry for him and added new Article 33(2) C giving him the same powers in\nfaded format! 19a was an attempt to slyly turn the title of President to a\nceremonial role without the concurrence of the People and transfer powers to\nthe PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crux of UNP-TNA-JVP & NGO argument against\nOctober2018 dissolution and to protect the Govt they belonged to and the 19a\nthey wrote was that new Article 70(1) ruled over Article 33(2) c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Article 33(2)c is in Chapter 7 under President\nwhile Article 70(1) is in Chapter 11 under Legislature. The People give power\nto the President directly, the Legislature is elected by the People but the PM\nis voted by within the Legislature and not directly by the People. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To dissolve Parliament, the President does have\nrestrictions but to recommend the President to dissolve Parliament, the\nLegislature needed 2\/3 majority as per new addition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the architects of the 19a \u2013 surprisingly, he too is a dual citizen now gone to live in Switzerland and before leaving condemned the 19a too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Therefore,\nthe calls to reconvene parliament jolts our memories of Oct2018 court case\ndecision, which to the surprise of all, went in favor of the petitioners\nagainst allowing the supreme will of the people to prevail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision did raise many a question in particular the unanimous vote which was viewed with the startling revelations by MP Gammanpila in Parliament regarding a voice clipping in his possession that sought to influence the decision and even judgementshttp:\/\/www.adaderana.lk\/news\/55005\/us-exerted-influenced-on-sl-judiciary-gammanpila?fbclid=IwAR1TL2y-CwLgHRDbG3ZY9HZ-5SUuEVid0uLa_7QFopqfJihmGokAQ5Gm_Rk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\nis in this backdrop and within this background context of characters that we\nhave to take stock of the current situation. These players are either holding\nroles or want to return to their roles but they were all part of the Jim band\nthat totally ruined Sri Lanka since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPM\u2019s statement on 18th<\/sup> April quite rightly pointed out how\nuncooperative the Opposition had been in helping support the Government with\ncovid-19 and blocking every effort by the Government, therefore those that are\nappearing on youtube & talk shows claiming Parliament has to reconvene to\nlend support & to pass laws is all humbug and meant only to satisfy the\ninternational gallery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\ncould Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament possibly do that is not currently being done by\nthe Health Services and Armed Forces & Police involved in hands on covid-19\noperation by simply reconvening Parliament & spending Rs.4.6million for a\nday\u2019s Parliamentary sitting? The answer automatically comes in just picturing\nthe scenario. Between January & August 2019, Parliament had convened 70\ntimes and out of the 225 Members only 51 attended over 60 sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.themorning.lk\/rallying-225-members-to-parliament-a-wasteful-necessity\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nParliament was dissolved simply to enable the people to cast their vote and\nelect a new team of people. Let\u2019s not forget the dissolved Parliament is full\nof people who were rejected by the People in the August 2015 elections and were\nbrought in through the back door. No rejected contestant can be brought to\nParliament via backdoor through the national list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Oct2018 the reconvene\nParliament wanted to return Ranil to throne, what do the same players want this\ntime round?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncurrent calls to reconvene Parliament is to undo a major faux pas that has\narisen as a result of submitting separate nominations. With UNP still to\nannounce who will lead UNP for the General Elections 2020, UNP-Ranil faction\nhanded nominations separately and SJB-Sajith faction also handed separate\nnominations to contest all districts. What is likely to ensue from this is\nnothing but hara kiri and UNP votes is likely to get split and UNP may even\nlose its bloc vote. Having calculated the likely risk, the teams are obviously\nfrantically pursuing all options to cancel nominations that closed on 19th<\/sup>\nMarch 2020. By reconvening Parliament, the nominations that closed will be null\n& void and if President again dissolves Parliament fresh nominations will\nbe called and SJB will get buried and Sajith will return to UNP to contest\nunder UNP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can they build a case?<\/strong> For starters the Election Commission has\ndeclared a date that is inconsistent with the provisions that allow him to\ndeclare a new date if the date declared by the President is cancelled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nelections commission had 3 options (all which required date to be maximum 14th<\/sup>\nMay) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Upon\ncancelling of the President\u2019s declared date to give a new date 14 days from the\ndate of cancellation <\/li>
  2. The EC\ngazette notification declared the new date would be 14 days from 30th<\/sup>\nApril <\/li>
  3. Section\n10 of Parliamentary Elections Act gives EC maximum 7 weeks from closing date of\nnominations to declare new date<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    None\nof the 3 options fit into the 20th<\/sup> June date EC announced and this\nallows any to challenge the decision as there is also a required date that\nParliament must reconvene (3 months from dissolution of Parliament) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So\nthe elections commissioner has erred in the issuing of dates which he needs to\nrevisit & correct, the Elections Commission is fully aware that Sri Lanka\nis experiencing a situation not experienced previously. However, even in the\nthick of terror Sri Lanka has held elections with big turn outs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    South\nKorea held elections in April 2020 recording 66% turnout with 44m going to vote\nand the ruling party recorded the highest seats since 1987. South Korea has\nover 10000 covid-19 cases and 240 deaths. US is also going to polls in November\nand already primaries are being held. US has close to 1m covid-19 cases and\nover 53,000 deaths! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With everyone realizing that they need a change in mindset post-covid it is essential that the politicians also adjust their ways and depart from the bad behaviors that have become part and parcel of their lifestyle as a politician. This is applicable to politicians\/political parties of all colours. The corrupt and incompetent manner that was a hallmark of rule since 1978 can no longer continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The calls to reconvene Parliament come from the same coterie of people who orchestrated regime change in 2015 capitalizing on a Presidential Election victory to bring to power a minority UNP government and place Ranil as PM without removing the sitting PM. A hurriedly cobbled \u2018national government\u2019 was created to dish out various roles to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}