Political Uncertainty & Keeping Up Promises
Sarath Jayasuriya
February 10th Local Government election is over. Unity government partners suffered a significant loss at the polls while a few months old party consisting of breakaways of UPFA constituent parties and the SLFP, emerged victorious with 44.69%. UNP retained 32.61% its block vote while the UPFA and SLFP spearheaded by the President was reduced to dismal 13.38% of the total votes polled. It was interesting to note that JVP has managed to increase its voter base to 6.26% overtaking even the SLFP.
Many pundits have joined the race to analyse the results by favouring their own interested political parties. No one has given an impartial analysis as yet. It is heart breaking to note that some news media both electronic and print, also joining the fray by publishing and displaying baseless stories just to beat up the drums driving the general public to run helter skelter for the truth.
Fact remains that, it was not an election to select candidates to the Legislative Assembly but to the local bodies. What we have just completed was a Local Government Election to elect local bodies such as Pradesheeya Sabhas, Urban Councils and Municipal Councils. It is a foregone conclusion and an acceptable scenario that the government in power always loses elections to local bodies. This is such a situation but in a greater magnitude. How did such a turn of events occur?
We need to understand the composition of the present government. M. Sirisena, two days after he was sworn in as the President the present Prime Minister was sworn in removing the then Prime Minister along with the cabinet of Ministers. A new cabinet was appointed breaking all the promises given, increasing the number in the cabinet way beyond 30. The parliament MPs over the divide flocked around the President and the newly appointed Prime Minister to canvass for Ministerial positions. The action by these members was encouraged by both leaders in the name of gaining a 2/3rd majority in the parliament for the purpose of introducing a new constitution which never happened except for brining in the 19th amendment.
However the 19th amendment was welcome by all since the article 31 of the constitution was amended to “(2) No person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the People, shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the People” which explains that the number of terms that a person could hold office of the President is limited to two terms. 19th amendment also included appointment of Seven (7) commissions which was greatly appreciated by the intelligent public.
One needs to take stock of the current situation carefully. As per the constitution President cannot remove the Prime Minster until he is made to understand that the PM no longer commands the majority in the Parliament. Even if PM does not command the majority in Parliament he cannot be removed unless the PM gives his resignation in writing.
Article 42 of the constitution clearly states “ 42 (2) The Prime Minister shall continue to hold office throughout the period during which the Cabinet of Ministers continues to function under the provisions of the Constitution unless he– (a) resigns his office by a writing under his hand addressed to the President; or (b) ceases to be a Member of Parliament”
The present PM was sworn in by the President immediately after the 2015 August General Elections, when the PM led UNF won 106 seats in the parliament. UNF government teamed up with minority parties to record a majority in the house to form a unity government. UPFA was fragmented and few members of the UPFA constituent parties with majority SLFP, under the advice of the President joined the government once again to command a 2/3rd majority in order to bring in promised constitutional changes such as the 19th amendment. Since the UPFA in general terms was supporting the unity government the TNA leader was nominated to the position of the Leader of the opposition.
