{"id":76181,"date":"2018-04-03T18:51:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T00:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=76181"},"modified":"2018-04-03T11:08:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T18:08:09","slug":"jo-should-challenge-19a-new-era-after-4-april-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/04\/03\/jo-should-challenge-19a-new-era-after-4-april-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"JO SHOULD CHALLENGE 19A-NEW ERA AFTER 4 APRIL 2018???"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Within the ambit of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka,\u00a0\u00a0the entire thrust of the change over from previous Constitution was the centre piece of Executive Prime Minister vis-a-vis Executive President.<\/p>\n

PUBLIC MANDATE:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just prior to 1978 elections, the UNP sought mandate from the People for the transfer of power from the Prime Minister to the Executive President.\u00a0\u00a0The Preamble to the Constitution explicitly legitimise the criteria, and Quote:<\/p>\n

” The PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA having, by their\u00a0Mandate freely expressed and granted<\/strong>\u00a0on the Sixth day of the waxing moon in the month of Adhi Nikini in the year Two Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty one of the Buddhist Era (being Thursday the Twenty first day of the month of July in the year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy seven), entrusted to and empowered their Representatives elected on that day to draft, adopt and operate a new Republican Constitution in order to achieve the goals of a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, and\u00a0having solemnly resolved by the grant of such Mandate and the confidence reposed in their said Representatives who were elected by an overwhelming majority, to constitute SRI LANKA into a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC whilst ratifying the immutable republican principles of REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY and assuring to all peoples FREEDOM, EQUALITY, JUSTICE, FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS and the INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>as the intangible heritage that guarantees the dignity and well-being of succeeding generations of the People of SRI LANKA and of all the people of the World, who come to share with those generations the effort of working for the creation and preservation of a JUST AND FREE SOCIETY: WE, THE FREELY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA,\u00a0in pursuance of such Mandate<\/strong>,<\/strong>humbly acknowledging our obligations to our People and gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain and preserve their rights and privileges so that the Dignity and Freedom of the Individual may be assured, Just, Social, Economic and Cultural Order attained, the Unity of the Country restored, and Concord established with other Nations, do hereby adopt and enact this CONSTITUTION as the SUPREME LAW of the DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA.”<\/p>\n

However, partial transfer of power from the Executive President to the Executive Prime Minister was carried under 19A, WITHOUT A MANDATE.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is a school of thought\u00a0\u00a0that the provisions of 19A could be construted as inconsistent with the Constitution, if challenged.<\/strong><\/p>\n

”\u00a0While presenting his submissions, the Attorney General told the court that the 19th Amendment could be passed with a two-thirds majority in\u00a0Parliament without calling for a referendum.<\/strong>[24]<\/a>\u00a0At that point, the Chief Justice pointed out that in the 19th Amendment the President is depicted as the symbol of national unity. Therefore, the Chief Justice stressed as the national flag is currently depicted as the symbol of national unity, replacing such a position with the President is disputable. The Chief Justice further questioned whether it curtailed the power of the President after the Prime Minister was named as the head of the Cabinet.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hopefully, after 4 April 2018,\u00a0\u00a0a new chapter in Sri Lankan politics will emerge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The legal luminaries will be working hard to initiate the challenge, thus President Mahinda Rajapakse will emerge as the Executive President of Sri Lanka unhindered.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE Within the ambit of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka,\u00a0\u00a0the entire thrust of the change over from previous Constitution was the centre piece of Executive Prime Minister vis-a-vis Executive President. PUBLIC MANDATE: Just prior to 1978 elections, the UNP sought mandate from the People for the transfer of power from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76181","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}