Sirisena Does A U-turn

September 1, 2015

Sirisena does a U-turn, says it is the responsibility of the parliament to either abolish or retain the Executive Presidency

Deviating from his declared policy of abolishing the executive presidency, President Maithripla Sirisena in his inaugural address to the new parliament today said it was the legislature’s responsibility to decide on the fate of the much maligned\venerated, executive presidency.

In his first address to the 8th Parliament of Sri Lanka Sirisena said that he is unable to change the executive presidency on his own as the constitution is amended by the Parliament and therefore the process should happen through the parliament.

However, Sirisena rode on the popular slogan of abolishing the executive presidency at the last Presidential election where he fought a bitter battle with the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and won.

In the past six months, although he could have obtained a 2\3 majority to abolish the Executive presidency Sirisena did not make any favourable moves.

According to some political analysts Sirisena’s comments showcase his desire to hang on to the executive presidency following on the footpaths of his SLFP predecessors Chandrika Bandranaike and Mahinda Rajapaksa who promised the same but never delivered.

Sirisena’s predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa was seeing listening to the President’s speech with a very obvious smirk in his face from the front row of the opposition benches in parliament in the company of erstwhile colleagues Dinesh Gunewardene and Nimal Siripala de Silva.

The other notable declared ambitions in a so-called abbreviated policy statement were the new government’s desire to combat fraud and corruption.                       Read More