Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has called on the government to deliver the National People’s Power election pledge to abolish the executive presidency and introduce a new constitution.
In a special statement on Thursday, Premadasa said the government had come to power promising a new constitution and a commitment to safeguard human rights, the Daily Mirror reported.
“This government came to power by promising that a new constitution would be introduced soon. The government also pledged to safeguard human rights. It is time to change the Constitution now,” he said.
He also urged the government to include a separate chapter on human rights in the constitution.
The rights framing
The call lands in a week in which the Opposition Leader has repeatedly pressed the government on rights and policing. On Wednesday he asked whether the Homagama custody death was a step towards a police state, and argued that two bills before Parliament — the Organised Crimes Bill and the bill on suppressing attacks on the state by terrorism — would erode civil liberties.
The demand for a dedicated rights chapter reads as continuous with that argument, though the filing does not connect the two explicitly.
Abolishing the executive presidency has been a recurring pledge of successive Sri Lankan governments and oppositions for decades, surviving several attempts at constitutional reform.
Not reported
The filing does not say where or in what form the statement was made, whether Premadasa set out a timetable or mechanism, or what the government’s response was. It does not say whether his party would support a specific reform bill, and gives no detail of what the proposed human rights chapter would contain.
Single source at the time of writing.