11 July 2024 02:06 pm Views - 5155
By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera
Moving the adjournment debate on holding the Presidential election duly in the specified time period, he told Parliament that there is no need to bring in a Constitutional amendment to restrict the President's term to five years as the Supreme Court has clearly specified that the President's term is five years.
He said the move by the Cabinet to bring in a new amendment is only to create confusion among the people over the Presidential election.
Dissanayake said there was no provision in the Constitution to bring in an amendment to the Constitution as an emergency Bill as 21st Amendment clearly says that emergency Bills can only be brought for matters concerning national security and in cases of disaster situations.
"There is a notion in the country that Ranil is a crafty and a 'game man'. I would say he is not crafty or a 'game man', but Mahinda Rajapaksa is the master of games. He has broken political parties and taken over parties. Ranil is not a 'game man'. He hatched games within UNP for 30 years. But, he lost even the parliamentary election. He has failed in all his games in the past and he will not be successful in his moves to prevent the Presidential election,” he said.