20th Amendment of Sri Lankan Constitution: Key Facts

October 24, 2020

The Sri Lankan Parliament recently passed the 20^th Amendment of Sri Lankan constitution.

Highlights

The 20^th amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution has expanded the powers of the President and also have increased the immunity of the President.
Under the 20^th amendment, the President gets the power to dissolve the parliament after two years and six months after being elected. It has weakened the powers of the prime minister.
The amendment empowers the President to appoint any person to the Government office without having need of getting consent from members of the parliament. This includes public services, election officials, human rights, police, corruption investigation commissions, bribery, etc.
The amendment allows the president to hold any ministries and also appoint and fire ministers.
This amendment rolls back the 19^th amendment of Sri Lanka.

Why was the 19^th amendment introduced?

It was introduced to weaken the powers of the president. It weakened those powers that were expanded by the 18^th amendment. The 18^th amendment introduced four main changes. They were

The President of Sri Lanka can seek for a re-election any number of times
He can bring in independent commissions under his authority
The Constitution Council that initially had 10 members was replaced with a 5-member council
The 18^th amendment allowed the President of Sri Lanka to attend Parliament once in three months. On the other hand, it entitled him will all privileges, powers and immunities as that of the other member of parliament.