13 May 2023 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Sandun A. Jayasekera
The continuous refusal by four governors who have been reportedly requested by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to tender their resignation is a challenge to the authority of the executive President, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) said yesterday.
The deputy chairman of the SLFP and Galle District parliamentarian Shan Wijeyalal De Silva told a news briefing at the party office that President Wickremesinghe was to appoint governors to four provinces on his return to the country from London after participating in the coronation of King Charles III on Monday.
“The media reports indicated that President Wickremesinghe had informed the four governors to resign from their posts enabling him to replace them with new governors. But this has not happened to date and respective governors continue to remain in their posts as usual. That is why we say that the bold defiance by the governors is a direct confrontation to the authority of the all-powerful executive President,” Mr. De Silva said.
He said the governors are appointed for a 5-year term by the President. They remain in their posts as long as the President - the appointing authority - is satisfied on their performance. However, the norm is that governors resign when a new President takes office. This did not happen when President Wickremesinghe took office in mid-July, 2022. We have information that governors are meeting top government hierarchy and religious leaders to apply pressure on the President to thwart his attempt to appoint new governors.
Mr. De Silva noted that soon after former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected to office in November 2019, he tendered his resignation as a then governor and President Rajapaksa accepted it.
If President Wickremesinghe requested the governors to resign, and they admonish him by refusing, it will not augur well for a smooth administration and will act as a bad precedent, Mr. De Silva stressed.
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