PM stresses importance of rectifying 17th Amendment's shortcomings

by Baratha Malawaraarachchi and Ranil Wijayapala

Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake yesterday told Parliament that there are shortcomings in the 17th Amendment to the Constitution which established the Constitutional Council and other independent commissions and that steps should be taken to remedy them.

"We see certain shortcomings in the 17th Amendment to the Constitution and they should be rectified for the effective implementation of the commissions set up under this Amendment," Premier Wickramanayake stressed in his winding up speech on the committee stage debate on the votes of the President, Prime Minister's office, Judges of the Supreme Court, Parliament, Department of Elections, Judaical Service Commission, Public Service Commission, the Constitutional Council and National Police Commission.

Premier Wickremanayake explained that the 17th Amendment was hurriedly passed in Parliament and certain shortcomings have surfaced in the process of implementation.

"These shortcomings have surfaced during implementation" he added. Citing an example, the Premier said there are no clauses or guidelines to remove a member from the Constitutional Council which plays the key role in the 17th Amendment.

"Also there is no proper coordination between the Police Commission and the Inspector General of Police.

The IGP is not a member of the Police Commission and as a result there is no understanding between the Police Commission and the IGP, while the Commission failed to understand the requirements of the Police, the IGP is also unaware of what's going on in the Commission. We have to rectify such shortcomings," added the Premier.

He stressed deficiencies in the Public Service Commission also should be addressed. The Premier explained that the Constitution needs to be amended to remove such shortcomings and it requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Premier Wickremanayake revealed he had given approval to several proposals put forward by the Elections Commissioner to strengthen democratic set up and the electioning process.

The Premier said:

The Commissioner of Elections had made a proposal to computerise all offices of Assistant Commissioners of Elections.

Already, offices of Gampaha and Colombo Assistant Commissioners have been computerised. This proposel would cost a large sum of money. But we must implement this programme. Also the Commissioner has suggested to conduct a census in June next year.

The Commissioner has made another proposal to obtain the list of deceased persons from the Registrar General's Department every three months, so that names of the deceased could be removed from the voters' list.

The Commissioner has suggested to obtain the list of Lankan expatriates every six months, from the Immigration and Emigration Department.

These measures are, required to properly maintain the voters' list. Despite the huge funds needed for these we have to implement them to safeguard the democratic set up. Therefore, I have given approval to these proposals.