Some of the people who are part of the Janatha Aragalaya or the 2022 People’s Struggle have demanded that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa be ousted from power. The executive presidency should be abolished. A file photo from Galle Face in Colombo. | Photo credit: Meera Srinivasan
Ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential election on September 21, the two main candidates have promised to abolish the executive presidency, a familiar pre-election promise made by many political leaders in the past but none fulfilled.
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Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the opposition National People’s Power Coalition, have both announced they would abolish the executive presidential system and replace it with a parliamentary system. The two contenders for the country’s top post are challenging incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, who in his campaign has not yet made any clear statement about the controversial system of governance that was introduced by his uncle and former president JR Jayewardene just after the liberalisation of Sri Lanka’s economy in 1978.
For nearly five decades, the island nation’s elected presidents have enjoyed unlimited powers and significant immunities that come with the office, and have repeatedly been invoked to make decisions. widely considered authoritarian,
In a collective statement on Tuesday (August 20, 2024), Sri Lanka’s leading scholars, researchers and activists demanded a firm, public commitment from all candidates contesting the presidential election to abolish the executive presidency. “The experience of 46 years of operation of the 1978 Constitution shows that the executive presidential system has accomplished none of the goals for which it was introduced: rapid and sustained economic growth and development; communal harmony; and political stability,” they argued.
“Executive presidentialism has had a negligible impact on development. It has worsened rather than improved peace and stability by fuelling ethnic conflict and making our political system prone to frequent crises,” while “allowing authoritarianism, corruption and incompetence to trump the common good of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan people,” he said.
Speaking at a media conference organised by members of civil society in Colombo, Peradeniya University law professor Deepika Udagama said: “The executive presidency is a cancer in our body politic… such concentration of power bodes well for democracy in our country.”
However, according to senior journalist and political commentator V. Thanabalasingham, people have little faith in such election promises, due to the many failed promises seen in the past. “Almost all presidents in the last 30 years have made the same promise before getting elected, but after getting elected they immediately forget it and start enjoying those powers,” he said. the hindu,