The Sri Lanka's Constitution recently made an amendment to roll back the 19th amendment that prevents high powers to the President. The Parliament with a two-thirds majority passed the 20th Amendment to the Constitution on Thursday, 213 members were present at the time of voting of that 156 members voting in favour of the bill and 65 against it in the 223-member Parliament. Eight members from the Opposition party has voted in favour of the 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka's Constitution to increase the powers of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will face disciplinary action said the party.
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The government replaced the 19th Amendment introduced in 2015 which cut-shorts the presidential power and strengthened the Parliamentary role is now replaced by the 20th amendment. Samagi Jana Balawegaya's (SJB) woman parliamentarian Diana Gamage and seven other parliamentarians voted in favour of 20A. The only Tamil defector in the eight member group was Aravind Kumar from Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPF). The ruling Sri Lankan People's Party, inspite of expressed opposition in some of the clauses in the amendment, voted to support.
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The 20A rolled back the pro-democracy, good governance 19A which curtailed presidential powers and made parliament more powerful. It means legal action can't be taken against the president. This reversing the work of the previous government to introduce more checks and balances and enhancing the role of Parliament. The activist, fear that the latest amendment to the Constitution may lead to authoritarianism.
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