National List: A Rejected Concept By The Lawmakers
Nagananda Kodituwakku
Outcry of many concerned citizens against appointment of those who had lost the trust and confidence of the people at the General Election through the National List, drove me to do a little bit of research on the introduction of the National List MP to the Parliament, through the 14th Amendment in 1988.
I found the research findings are truly interesting. The observations (reproduced below) made on the so-called “National List Issue” by some MPs when this Amendment was debated in the Parliament on 04th May 1988, would be an eye opener to the entire electorate. The time-tested arguments made against the introduction of the National List, clearly confirm that the people of this country has been effectively conned by the respective Political party leaderships.
The plain truth is that sovereign power of electing representatives to the Parliament vested in the people (Article 4 (c) have been openly abused by the respective political parties, including the JVP, to bring back those who have been rejected by the people through the back door.
R Premadasa, Prime Minister: “… Names presented by the Parties would be published in the gazette, immediately after the acceptance of the Nominations for the Election. Therefore, there would be an advance notice to the people about those who would be elected through the national list …”
Dinesh Gunawardana MP: “…The situation is very grave and unfortunate. The main political parties would abuse the ‘National List’ concept to introduce fraudsters to Parliament who cannot win people’s mandate to enter Parliament… ” Read More
