The political parties now opposing the repealing of 19th Amendment should realise that the people of this country after voting in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa into power had given a two-third majority to his government, to govern this country with power and not deal with a constitutional crisis, former judicial officer of the European Court of Law, Prof. Dinesh K. Gunasekara told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
“It is the duty of these political parties to respect the people’s mandate and let the President govern this country and fulfill his duties to the public,” he said.
“The last thing the people want to see is the 19 th Amendment, which was indeed a product of the NGOs and the United National Party, rippling the institutional balance of power within the incipient state structure and spark a constitutional crisis” , he said.
This was something that people endured during the office of the previous Maithripala Sirisena -Ranil Wickremesinghe regime.
“The 19 th Amendment was intrinsically flawed not to abort the President’s Executive powers, but to shift these powers to the UNP Prime Minister. It was an individualistic attempt by a few to perpetuate the powers of the UNP,” he said.
“When the Executive powers lay with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he put an end to the war. With the Executive power scrapped under the 19 th Amendment, the country experienced how that compromised the country’s national security with the Islamist terrorists letting loose bombs in local churches in Colombo under the previous regime,” he pointed out.
The people want to see President Gotabaya Rajapaksa governing the country to develop its economy and deliver his promises to the nation according to his Saubhagyaye Dakma policy statement. Rather than political parties trying to hinder presidential powers, he added.