Birth of 19A to mark end of parliamentary term
*Two clauses of Bill need to be approved by people direct
* The rest can be passed by parliament with 2/3 majority
* Prime Minister agrees to drop clauses requiring referendum
* Present Parliament without mandate to change Constitution - Susil
* ‘What has become of document Kiriella submitted to SC?’
April 9, 2015, 12:00 pm 
By Saman Indrajith
Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa announced in Parliament yesterday that the Supreme Court had determined that two clauses of the Bill titled 19th Amendment to the Constitution needed the approval of the people at a referendum and the rest thereof required a two-thirds majority for its passage.
When the House commenced sitting Speaker Rajapaksa said: "I wish to announce to the House that I have received the determination of the Supreme Court in respect of the Bill titled ‘Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution’ which has been challenged in the Supreme Court in terms of article 121 (1) of the Constitution. The Court has determined that the Bill complies with the provisions of article 82 (1) of the Constitution and requires to be passed by special majority specified in Article 82(5) of the Constitution and that the paragraphs 42 (3), 43 (1), 43 (3), 44 (2), 44 (3) and 44 (5) in Clause 11 and some sections in Clause 26 require the approval of the people at a referendum in terms of the provisions of Article 83 of the Constitution."
A referendum will be required for the sections that provide for making the Prime Minister the head of the Cabinet of ministers and enabling him to determine the number of ministers and subjects and functions to be assigned to the ministers, change those assignments and the one which says ‘at the request of the Prime Minister, any Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers may, by notification published in the gazette, delegate to any minister who is not a member of the cabinet of ministers, any power or duty pertaining to any subject or function assigned to such Cabinet minister, or any power or duty conferred or imposed on him or her by any written law, and shall be lawful for such other minister to exercise and perform any power or duty delegated notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the written law by which that power or duty is conferred or imposed on such minister of the cabinet of ministers.
The section in Clause 26 of the Bill seeking to amend the sections pertaining to appointment of a competent authority to look over the state and private electronic media institutions during the times of elections, too, needs to be approved by people at a referendum.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the government would withdraw, at the committee stage, the clauses that required a referendum and hoped to get others passed in Parliament.
UPFA parliamentarian Prof. G.L. Peiris said that the substance of the Bill was to seek transferring the powers of the President to the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers. The very same sections seeking the transfer of powers had been referred for the referendum by the Supreme Court. The rest of the content of the Bill, too, were supportive of that and, therefore, we need this to be further discussed and precautions and care taken in preparing a Constitution.
Gampaha District MP Ven Athuraliye Rathana Thera: We have agreed only to remove certain draconian powers of the executive presidency and not to do away with that institution. We thought that this amendment to the Constitution would be beneficial to people. But, that that is not so. The Prime Minister is an experienced yet cunning politician. He has shirked his responsibility. We are not against everything in this Bill. But, there was another document prepared by the office of the Leader of the House. We cannot find the Sinhala and Tamil versions thereof. This should be brought up again.
JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake: The substance of this Bill is positive. There could be some technical problems. We can sort out the technical problems and move ahead.
UPFA Colombo District MP Susil Premajayantha: The matter we discuss today is the Bill that had been entered in the Order Book. It is the one submitted for Supreme Court determination. But, now we have come to know that the Office of the Leader of the House had submitted another document of 12 pages to the Supreme Court. We have not seen it yet. It has not been provided to us. President J.R. Jayewardene presented his plans before elections to amend the Constitution and obtained a mandate for bringing in the 1978 Constitution. This Parliament was formed in 2010 has not been given a mandate by the people to amend the Constitution. No one presented a manifesto to people promising the transfer of President’s powers to the Prime Minister. This amendment and the subsequent document should be incorporated and published in a gazette.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe: We have no problem with the clauses which need a referendum. These amendments would come into power after the present term of President Maithripala Sirisena. We have informed all UNP MPs of this. The Constitution has outlined the process of amending all the laws. We have brought this Bill in accordance with the provisions of the Standing Orders. We could bring in amendments at the committee stage. If anyone needs to consult the Attorney General on some matters his opinion, too, could be obtained during the committee stage. All we needed is to empower Parliament.
Meanwhile, President Maithripala Sirisena said in Polonnaruwa yesterday that Parliament would be dissolved after the passage of the 19th Amendment to be presented to the House on April 20.
