{"id":91765,"date":"2019-07-29T23:58:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T05:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91765"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:51:15","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T23:51:15","slug":"next-president-will-have-all-powers-sirisena-now-enjoys-and-a-lot-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/29\/next-president-will-have-all-powers-sirisena-now-enjoys-and-a-lot-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Next President Will Have All Powers Sirisena Now Enjoys and a Lot More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A\ngroup of UNPers, convinced they are going to lose the next presidential\nelection big-time, is spreading false information saying that the next\npresident will not have the same powers President Sirisena now enjoys. They\nargue 19A provisions relating to the powers of the president come into effect\nwhen his first term ends. This is a nonsensical view unfortunately popularized\nby a leading lawyer. However, he is not the only lawyer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19A has no transitional provisions\nfrom the time it was passed to the end of Sirisena\u2019s term. Therefore, the full\nimpact of 19A is already effective since 2015 when it was passed. The President\ncan change the Prime Minister at will. Only problem is if the another MP has\nreal support far more than the appointed Prime Minister, then chaos results.\nThis was the case even before 19A. The MP who would not cause the ruling party\nto lose its grip on power was appointed for this reason (no matter how\nridiculous he was).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirisena was elected in 2015 for a\nterm of 6 years to end on January 8, 2021. However, with the 19A, the\npresidential term was limited to just 5 years. Sirisena\u2019s term after 19A ends\non January 8, 2020. As per the Constitution, the presidential election must be\nheld at least two months before that. How come this provision came into effect\nimmediately but other provisions come into effect after Sirisena? It is an\nabsurd argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other side of the argument is\nthe Prime Minister will assume president\u2019s powers. This is a joke. The prime\nminister is part of the legislature and the head of the legislature. How come\nthe same person be the executive! 19A very clearly states that the president is\nthe Head of the Cabinet (the other institution that has some executive powers).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What seems to confuse the confused\nis the draft 19A that was struck down by the Supreme Court as it trespassed\ninto the powers of the President. That was not passed. And that was not\ngazetted. It was changed and the changed bill was passed. If presidential\npowers were to be restricted, it must be approved by the people at a referendum.\nThe regime that fears elections will never hold a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the next president will\nhave far more powers than Sirisena now enjoys. Sirisena\u2019s hands are tied as his\nparty is just a fraction of parliament. The next president will get a parliament\nof his choice within months of his\/her election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who popularize the nonsensical\nargument that the next president will be merely ceremonial are affected by the\n\u2018sour grapes\u2019 syndrome. Their preferred candidate has no chance of winning it\nso they play down the importance of the office of the president. However, all\ncandidates, voters and media know it is the most important of all elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019 November presidential election\nwill be the most keenly contested presidential election ever. Once the president\nis elected, everything else falls into place. The president at his\/her\ndiscretion decides when to dissolve parliament and have parliamentary\nelections. Timing will be to maximize the benefit for his party and most\ndamaging to the rival party. The Attorney General will also be appointed by the\nPresident and the Chief Justice too. Of course the Prime Minister and all other\nministers are appointed by the president. Win presidency and everything else is\na cakewalk. The president has all the powers, rightly or wrongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19A just created confusion. It\ndidn\u2019t achieve anything useful other than bring back the two-term limit,\nprevent foreigners from entering parliament and the office of the president and\nraise the minimum age of the president to 35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNP should be preparing for the 2024\npresidential election than spread false information. 2019 is a foregone\nconclusion. UNP will be wiped out at all elections (provincial, presidential\nand parliamentary) to be held within the next 8 months. The last time the UNP\nwon a presidential election was in 1988. That too thanks to the lowest voters’\nturnout in history, violence in both the north and the south, IPKF invasion and\nshameless appeasement of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress via Constitutional\namendments just two days before the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara A group of UNPers, convinced they are going to lose the next presidential election big-time, is spreading false information saying that the next president will not have the same powers President Sirisena now enjoys. They argue 19A provisions relating to the powers of the president come into effect when his first term ends. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91765","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=91765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}