by Sahan Tennekoon in The Daily Morning, August 15, 2023
The main Parliamentary Opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has claimed that despite other current issues requiring more attention, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Government are prioritising the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution with the underhanded purpose of obtaining the votes of minority communities in an upcoming election.
Speaking at a media briefing, SJB National Organiser and Parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake claimed that the Government is neglecting the responsibility of stabilising the country’s economy and is working to implement the 13th Amendment, thereby, attempting to mislead the people at the upcoming elections. He said that before implementing the 13th Amendment, the Provincial Councils (PCs) Elections, which were suspended when the current President was the Prime Minister, should be held, and that until that is done, neither he (Wickremesinghe) nor the current Government has the moral right to talk about the devolution of power to the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
“We, the SJB, are not against the implementation of the 13th Amendment. But, we say that this is not a matter that should be given priority to be completed urgently. If the Government has a real desire to devolve power, it (Government) should make the PCs functional. This interim Government was appointed to recover the fallen economy. That is the main task of the Government. The Government is now going to forget what they were appointed for and implement the political agenda targeting the elections,” he alleged.
He, therefore, said that the Government should understand its priorities before making promises to the people.
Speaking in Parliament last week, SJB and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa demanded to know for whose benefit the Government was seeking to implement the 13th Amendment. The most important thing to be done is to conduct Local Government polls and obtain a mandate first before implementing the proposals to implement the 13th Amendment, Premadasa said.
https://www.themorning.lk/articles/BkJe5DdWaIQkOum6G5Ve
