Sri Lanka oppn plans motion to scrap president’s power

Bloomberg

Sri Lanka’s opposition plans to file a motion soon to abolish President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s sweeping executive powers that lawmakers and critics say has contributed to the economic mismanagement of the country and prompted street protests calling for his ouster.
“It will be an opposition motion. It will be to abolish the executive presidency,” Harsha de Silva, a lawmaker for the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, told Bloomberg News. “It is likely to go beyond the 19th amendment,” he added, referring to an earlier constitutional change that curtailed the president’s power.
Silva was echoing earlier calls from lawmakers that the presidency’s executive powers should be abolished at the
earliest. Such a constitutional amendment requires two-thirds parliamentary majority, or the support of 150 lawmakers. Rajapaksa has remained defiant and his supporters in parliament have said he will not step down under any circumstance.
Rajapaksa won the presidency by a landslide in November 2019 on the back of a campaign to enhance security after the Easter Sunday attacks the same year.
He moved swiftly to amend the constitution a few months later to bestow more powers to his presidency including holding ministries, sacking ministers and controlling the election commission, police and anti-corruption agency. Over 40 lawmakers abandoned his coalition and left it as a minority.
Members of parliament from both sides of the aisle have been reluctant to work with a bare-bones interim government.