Executive President or Executive Prime Minister?
A rose by another name must be avoided says Opposition

July 17, 2010, 12:00 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Although President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the UNP have quickly agreed on the abolition of the executive presidency and electoral reforms, they are yet to reach agreement on the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, authoritative political sources said yesterday.

``Negotiations are still at a very early stage though a section of the press has already depicted a rosy picture of SLFP-UNP consensus,’’ they said.

They indicated that the 17th Amendment remains a contentious issue with President Rajapaksa strongly asserting the need to do away with this unanimously adopted provision in the Constitution when the two parties met at Temple Trees last Monday to discuss constitutional reform.

The president had objected to the whole concept of the 17th Amendment, which envisaged setting up a Constitutional Council to make appointments to independent commissions to run the judiciary, police, elections secretariat, public service and media, they said.

Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms Minister Dew Gunasekera yesterday said that both the government and the UNP would have to compromise on any contentious issue and not only on the 17the Amendment.

Responding to a query by The Sunday Island, the veteran politician emphasized that now that the two major parties have agreed on the abolition of executive presidency and electoral reforms, no other issue should be allowed to hinder the process.

The Communist Party’s General Secretary and National List MP, acknowledging that they were so far not directly involved in the negotiating process, said that their battle to repeal executive presidency was as long and as difficult as the war against the LTTE.

He expressed confidence that the ruling coalition and the UNP would soon reach agreement on what he called a ``compromise formula’’ to resolve the dispute over the 17th Amendment.

Minister Gunasekera said that he recently told UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya of the importance of both parties agreeing on a compromise.

This should not be allowed to hinder rapid progress of a process which could change the entire political landscape, he stressed.

According to him, the UPFA and the UNP would accept a combination of the first-past-the-post and Proportional Representation (PR) systems to elect members to Parliament.

Shortly before the newest initiative on constitutional reform by President Rajapaksa and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe following their meeting on July 10, Minister Gunasekera strongly criticized the move to introduce far reaching constitutional amendments to pave the way for the incumbent president to run for a third term.

He explained that it would be difficult to justify a third term for the incumbent even before he had begun his second term. (the president is currently completing his first term and the second will begin in November)

UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday that a genuine effort was needed on the part of the government and the opposition to take the recently launched initiative forward.

Emphasizing that they were a long way from reaching agreement on important issues, he said that the crux of the matter is agreement on reduced presidential powers.

The bottom line is that the whole exercise would be futile if the executive prime minister was vested with existing presidential powers, he noted.

``A total review of presidential powers is required,’’ Jayasuriya asserted.

He said that they were in the process of discussing key issues such as local government elections, a model for the office of executive premier and the 17th Amendment.

Both Gunasekera and Jayasuriya agreed that they had to move cautiously, taking all political parties into confidence, to ensure the proposed constitutional reforms would receive the backing of all sections.

JVP sources told The Sunday Island that President Rajapaksa would have to give up his dictatorial powers and make the proposed office of the executive prme minister answerable to parliament.

``The incumbent president should not be allowed to retain his current powers under the guise of executive premiership,’’ JVP source stressed.

Political sources said that the President was likely to push for the implementation of the amendments only at the end of his second term, which would begin in November when his first term ends.