Sri Lanka Parliament adopts 19th Amendment Tuesday April 28,2015

 

Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday April 28,2015 night adopted the 19th Constitutional Amendment with an overwhelming majority.

At a marathon sitting that lasted over 12 hours, the 225-strong Parliament cleared the Bill with 212 members voting in favour of the legislation. Ten members were absent. While one voted against the Bill, another member abstained from the voting. The 14-member Tamil National Alliance (TNA) also supported the Bill. 

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe thanked all the parties that supported the Bill

The legislation envisages the dilution of many powers of Executive Presidency, which had been in force since 1978.

Among the important features of the Bill are -

•  reduction in the terms of President and Parliament from 6 years to 5 years

• re-introduction of a 2-term limit that a person can have as President

• power of President to dissolve Parliament only after four and a half years [unlike one year, as prevalent now]

• revival of Constitutional Council and 

• establishment of independent commissions.