Marxist party wants to see proposed constitutional amendments before talks with Sri Lankan government

Sri Lanka's Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says the party first needs to see a draft of the proposed constitutional amendments before agreeing to discuss them with the government.



In response to the government's statement on Friday (16) that an invitation would be extended to the JVP to discuss the proposed constitutional amendments and electoral reforms, a JVP politburo member told ColomboPage that the party was unable to give its opinion on the matter without seeing the amendments.
The member also said that the party has not yet received any official invitation from the government for a discussion.
He noted that the government needed to publicize the proposed constitutional amendments and make its stance clear on the amendments.
"How can we talk about the amendments when we are not aware of what exactly they are and the government's real stance on them?' he asked.
A main opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentary group headed by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a group of senior ruling party members Monday (12) and conducted a special discussion centered on the constitutional amendments.
The President and the UNP leaders agreed in principle to the need to abolish the Executive Presidency and create an Executive Prime Minister post that will be responsible to parliament.