Mutiny in the ranks over dilution of 13A

• June 13, 2013
• As the urgent bill to revise the provisions of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that sets up the Provincial Councils returns to Cabinet today, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition is pulling in different directions. If it cannot get the numbers to push a constitutional amendment through, will the Government opt out of the northern polls with another time-buying exercise? 

“It is necessary that we give to these people the freedoms that are the right of people in all others parts of our country. Similarly, it is necessary that the political solutions they need should be brought to closer to them faster than any country or government in the world would bring. However, it cannot be an imported solution” – President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a statement to the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009

The one-week cooling-off period offered to members of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Cabinet of Ministers to review an urgent bill to dilute the powers of the provincial councils ends today. And yet, in a bizarre twist, a Government that looked well on its way to amending the Constitution of Sri Lanka for the second time in three years appears to have been stopped in its tracks by strong opposition from within its own ranks.
The Rajapaksa regime has long since grown accustomed to getting its way on matters of governance, irrespective of the views of its constituent allies. But the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the country’s supreme law means that if it wants to revise the 13th Amendment and dilute the powers of the councils ahead of a promised Northern Provincial Council election this September, it has no choice but to win over its coalition partners in order to make the necessary numbers.

A stormy Cabinet

Mutiny in the Ranks Over Dilution of 13A by nelvely