Sri Lanka opposition leader slams PM over new charter
Says govt lacks political moral to introduce it
Sri Lanka's opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday slammed the efforts being made to formulate a new Constitution, saying Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government does not have political moral to introduce it and should therefore hold fresh polls.
Rajapaksa was speaking in parliament on the report of the experts panel presented in the Constitutional assembly by Wickremesinghe two weeks ago.
Sri Lanka's former strongman, who attempted to overthrow Wickremesinghe with the help of President Maithripala Sirisena last year, criticised the prime minister's statements that the country will remain indivisible and united even after the new Constitution is enacted.
Rajapaksa said the new Constitution would weaken the parliament and "immeasurably strengthen provincial legislatures".
Since the presentation of the report, Rajapaksa has been alleging that the government is drafting a new Constitution to appease the main Tamil political party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and that the new Constitution would harm the Sinhala majority community.
Rajapaksa said that the limitations imposed on the legislative power of Parliament is "the turning point at which the unitary state becomes a federal state". He is also critical of the devolved police powers for provinces as advocated in the report.
He told Parliament that Wickremesinghe's government lacked political moral to introduce a new Constitution and therefore they should hold a fresh parliamentary poll.
It appears that the current constitutional process had run into the same historical problems which stopped efforts by various government to address the Tamil demand for political recognition.