Authority of the executive challenged as Governors refuse to resign: SLFP

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.