Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said he would fully implement the 13th Amendment to make the system of provincial councils more meaningful by reducing the central government’s powers to curb their functioning, and asked all political parties to submit their proposals on the issue so that the Parliament could take a “final decision”.
The move is part of Wickremesinghe’s reconciliation efforts with the country’s minority Tamil community, which has been demanding the implementation of the 13th Amendment (13A) that provides for devolution of power to it. The 13A was brought in after the India-Sri Lanka agreement of 1987. It created nine provinces as devolved units with a temporary merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces.
In a special statement in Parliament, Wickremesinghe said, ”No political party is opposed to the 13A. I invite them to do an in-depth study of ways to devolve power through 13A. I ask them to submit their proposals so that the Parliament could take a final decision on it.” ”It should be the Parliament to decide on the future role of the provincial councils,” he stressed.
The President reiterated that he would bring in the amendment to make the system of provincial councils more meaningful by reducing the central government’s powers to curb their functioning. Wickremesinghe said the stalled provincial council elections could be held after the Parliament’s agreement on their powers.
The elections for the nine provinces have been on hold since 2018 following a move to introduce electoral reforms. It now needs a parliamentary amendment to enable the elections to be held under the existing proportional representation system. Wickremesinghe said the party deliberations for common ground on all powers, other than the police powers, must commence immediately.
However, most Sinhala political parties remain opposed to the idea of empowering provincial councils on the ground that granting full powers to them would pave the way for the separation of the north and east from the island nation.
