UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a press conference today the government was in a hurry to pass the Draft Bill for amending the Constitution in parliament with a two-third majority without considering the many problems faced by the people in the country.
Attanayake also said an important bill like the constitutional amendments is to be brought before parliament as an Urgent Bill without even presenting them to the people. He said the people have a right to known what the amendments were.
Attanayake said the UNP strongly opposed the government's move to hurriedly push the constitutional amendments through parliament.
Meanwhile, the Draft Bill, approved by the Cabinet yesterday, was taken up before a five-judge bench of Supreme Court this morning.
Registrar of the Supreme Court said the Court would notify its determination as to whether the proposed Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution to the Speaker and the President within 24 hours as required by the Constitution.
Following the Supreme Court's decision, the Speaker will place the Bill on the Order Paper of the Parliament. It will be debated on September 8.
The ruling alliance is confident of passing the Bill with a two-third majority in the 225-member parliament with at least 160 votes in favor.
The amendments propose deletion of clause 2 of article 31 which specifies term limits on Executive Presidency, changes to the Constitutional Council, changes to appointment of Commissions, delegation of powers to Secretaries of Ministries to institute public service transfers, and making mandatory for the holder of the office of the President to attend Parliament every three months.
No comments:
Post a Comment