21 February 2019 05:28 pm
The composition of the Constitutional Council (CC) should be changed in order to keep politicians out of it, Government MP Jayampathi Wickramaratne told parliament today.
Speaking during an adjournment debate in the House, he said the CC solely comprised of non-politicians during its inception in 2001 when the probation government was formed by the People’s Alliance and the JVP.
“The JVP, a party which got the opportunity to nominate a member to the Constitutional Council, appointed an SLFP supporter. However, this member acted impartially. The opposition in 2015 rejected the idea of having all civil personnel in the council and wanted only MPs to its membership. Then, we contacted the late Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera who was keen on having all civil members. He advised us to go ahead with the agreement that had been reached at that time – to have seven MPs representing the CC and three civil members,” he said.
The MP said there should be more civil members than MPs in the council in order to make it more independent.
“What the President should do is to get the opinion of the Chief Justice and the Attorney General prior to making any nomination,” he said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)