Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the new government will restore democratic checks and balances after a decade of increasingly authoritarian rule under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“We will replace the present executive presidency with a government which will exercise executive power with cabinet and Parliament,” Wickremesinghe told Parliament, in a speech laying out the new government’s 100-day programme. Wickremesinghe, 65, said the constitution would be amended to give powers to independent bodies that will act as watchdogs over the judiciary and other public bodies, a move to limit presidential authority.
The new government will abolish Rajapaksa’s 2010 amendment and enact a Right to Information Act and a National Audit Act to increase transparency, after complaints that Rajapaksa signed deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with China without informing the nation of the terms. The constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds Parliament majority. President Maithripala Sirisena, who also succeeded Rajapaksa as the chairman of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), has secured the support of around 100 former Rajapaksa loyalists in the 225-member parliament. (Source- livemint)
