Difficult operation of 19th Amendment over tug-o-war with Opposition yesterday

Difficult operation of 19th Amendment over tug-o-war with Opposition yesterday ....

How Maithri - Ranil found things difficult

It was reported that as a result of a massive

challenge to pass the Bill, the tug-o-war between the government Party and the Opposition to a close because of the two relevant clauses brought forward to the two clauses  of the 19th Amendment of the constitution.

In the above connection, it was said that President Sirisena had remained back in parliament last morning (28) until the moment the voting was taken up and had taken a great deal of effort in this respect. The refusal to give consent to the Government Party on the two amendments by the Opposition to the clause which stated that the members of Parliament should be appointed by obtaining the advice of the Prime Minister when appointing the Cabinet and apart from that the clause stating that three external individuals be appointed happened to be the primary cause of this problem.

The Government Party and the Opposition had brought forward 174 amendments in relevance to the 19th Amendment. Among those were 63 amendments of the Government Party and 111 amendments of the Opposition. There were 29 amendments from Mr. W.D.J. Seneviratna, 55 amendments from Mr. Rajiva Wijeysinghe, 1 amendment from Mr. Geethanjana Goonewardena, 1 amendment from Mr. Dinesh Goonawardena, 2 amendments from Mrs. Shriyani Wijeywickrema, 7 amendments from Mr. Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena, 8 amendments from Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara and 8 amendments from Mr. Douglas Devananda which were so forwarded. 

Throughout the debate yesterday the Opposition showed a red light to the Government Party expressing that they would not vote in favour of the 19th Amendment if consent was not granted to the appeal that all members of the constitutional committee are Members of Parliament, that the clause which says that the Prime Minister's consent should be obtained when appointing Members of Parliament should be removed and that the Government should accede to the two prominent amendments of the Opposition. It was also mentioned at the debate by Members of the Opposition that Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, former Chief Justice Mrs. Shirani Bandaranayaka and Mr. Pakyasothi Saravanamuttu are are not considered suitable as the external individuals whom the government wish to appoint. 

President Sirisena tried his utmost to solve this problem. The President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition had engaged in discussion at length during the evening trying to get round the Government to agree to the two primary amendments of the Opposition.