MR says thus far and no more

27 December 2012 07:31 am

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has intimated to the leftist parties of the coalition that he was not willing to move away from the current impeachment process with regard to the request made by them that parliament be prorogued or an independent panel of retired judges be appointed to investigate charges against the Chief Justice.

“Since the impeachment process has been set in motion, the President said he is not willing to stray away from it under any circumstance. The President said that the process is in accordance with the constitution and therefore it will continue,” LSSP Leader and Minister Professor Tissa Vitharana said.

Prof.Vitharana said that despite the leftist parties proposing an alternative to the current impasse, the fact that the entire process was within the ambit of the constitution has resulted in the requests being negated.

Meanwhile Communist Party Leader and Minister D.E.W.Gunasekara said they had done their duty towards the country by proposing an acceptable alternative.

“I haven’t heard that our proposal has been rejected, however we have done our duty by pointing out the flaws in the process. Accepting it or not is entirely up to the President,” he said.

Meanwhile a top Government source said the furthest the government was willing to go was to appoint an independent commission to “give their opinion on the report that comes out of parliament is really as far as the President is willing to go.”

However he added that the government was willing to bring in a law to include a comprehensive procedural process for impeachment in the future.
“It won’t apply to the current circumstances but the government is willing to bring in a new law to provide for this lacuna in the future,” he said. (Hafeel Farisz)