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AFP
Colombo
Sri Lanka’s ruling party Tuesday unveiled a constitutional amendment handing unprecedented power to the president, prompting protests in parliament and opposition claims of a power-grab.
The bill proposes the removal of legal and legislative oversight of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on human rights and government spending, and awards the head of state the right to appoint Supreme Court judges.
It also re-instates the power of the president to sack parliament after it completes just one year of its five-year term and reverses legislation ensuring the judiciary, police, civil service and election commission remain independent branches of the government.
Gotabaya, a defence official during his elder brother Mahinda’s decade-long term as president, was elected president in November and swiftly appointed Mahinda as prime minister. The brothers are hugely popular among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority for crushing Tamil separatists in a no-holds-barred offensive in 2009, bringing an end to decades of bloody civil war.
Colombo
Sri Lanka’s ruling party Tuesday unveiled a constitutional amendment handing unprecedented power to the president, prompting protests in parliament and opposition claims of a power-grab.
The bill proposes the removal of legal and legislative oversight of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on human rights and government spending, and awards the head of state the right to appoint Supreme Court judges.
It also re-instates the power of the president to sack parliament after it completes just one year of its five-year term and reverses legislation ensuring the judiciary, police, civil service and election commission remain independent branches of the government.
Gotabaya, a defence official during his elder brother Mahinda’s decade-long term as president, was elected president in November and swiftly appointed Mahinda as prime minister. The brothers are hugely popular among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority for crushing Tamil separatists in a no-holds-barred offensive in 2009, bringing an end to decades of bloody civil war.
