UPFA politicians yesterday gave a wake-up call to UNP Chairman Kabir Hashim reminding that the leader of his party, Ranil Wickremesinghe was sacked from his post as Prime Minister by an Executive President whom the people have vested with substantive powers, to appoint the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
They were responding to comments made by Hashim on Monday that the President has failed to recognise Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, describing it as violation fundamentals of Parliamentary Democracy.
They asked if it was sovereignty of the people or the Parliament that is 'supreme' in keeping with their politics, or is it Ranil Wickremesinghe who is supreme.
UPFA MP Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle yesterday said, the President of this country has been voted for and directly elected by the people and that the country has a Presidential form of Government. "There is only one executive,"she pointed out.
“The failure will be not to realise his appointee Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and pretending that it is not so, and dragging the country to a state of anarchy,” Minister Gamini Lokuge said.
“However disconcerting may be, it is better for them to realise that the coalition government they had formed with the help and the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena is now over because UPFA members have walked out of it,” he said.
“The Speaker can only regulate Parliament; he cannot appoint the Prime Minister or the Cabinet,” he said.
Lokuge said that the Speaker is currently conducting sessions in Parliament for the amusement of foreign ambassadors and high commissioners. UPFA MPs said Kabir Hashim was right when he said that the President’s terms ends soon, because the tenure of the Executive in a Presidential form of government is fixed.
This should help Hashim to understand that the country has a Presidential system. Although they tried their best to make an executive Prime Minister through various constitutional reforms and amendments, the powers lie in the hands of the President.
from daily news