The Constitutional Steering Committee will hold its next round of meetings from July 4 to 6, to further discuss the clauses in the interim report on the draft of the Constitution, a senior member of the Steering Committee told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
The parties represented in the Constitutional Assembly are expected to narrow down the differences on the interim report, at the upcoming meetings.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier said the first interim report on the draft of the Constitution will be tabled in August.
“If there are issues that are not possible to come to an agreement at this stage, then the parties have been given the freedom to state separately their individual positions,” he said, adding that these differences can be addressed at the subsequent debate on the interim report.
“There will be a debate on the interim report at the Parliament,” the senior member said.
“The political parties have agreed in general on devolution proposals in the interim report. The SLFP too has indicated their consensus on the devolution proposals in the report, which is a positive development,” he added.
The senior member said they have been able to bridge the gap and reach consensus on many issues but it was unfortunate the SLFP and the UNP are still grappling to find common ground on the subject of Executive Presidency.
The UNP has called for the complete abolition of the Executive Presidency while the SLFP is ready to retain it in its current form. The 19th Amendment introduced last year by the Government scrapped excessive powers vested in the office of the Executive President.
There were meetings between the SLFP-TNA and the SLFP-UNP on the sidelines of the Constitution making process to narrow down the differences over their respective party stances.
At the end of the debate on the first interim report, a full report is to be submitted to Parliament with recommendations on a draft Constitution.