Presidential system of government.
President (Mrs.) Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
Political
Institutions Description |
The Executive consists of the President of the Democratic
Socialist Republic who is the head of the state and
the government and the commander-in-chief of the armed
forces elected directly by the people at periodical
elections.
The President shall be responsible to Parliament.
The President shall be a member and the Head of the
Cabinet of Ministers.
Legislature (Parliament) which exercises the Sovereignty
of the people consists of 225 representatives from
whom the President shall appoint as Prime Minister
the Member of Parliament who in his opinion is most
likely to command the confidence of Parliament.
Presidency
and Parliament |
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| Parliament |
The most important national office is that of the
president, who is defined in the Constitution as head
of state, chief executive, and commander in chief
of the armed forces. Although governmental institutions
are divided in the customary way between the executive,
legislative, and judicial branches, the president's
powers as chief executive are formidable compared
to those of the legislature. Thus, it cannot be said
that the Constitution provides the political system
with the benefits of a genuine separation of powers.
With Parliament's approval, the president appoints
the prime minister and in consultation with the prime
minister chooses the members of the cabinet. It is
the chief executive, rather than the prime minister,
who presides over the cabinet's deliberations, and
who may assume any ministerial portfolio. The president
also has the authority to dissolve Parliament at any
time and call for new elections. The president cannot
exercise this power, however, if the legislature has
been in power for less than a year and does not consent
to the dissolution, or if it is considering a resolution
to impeach the president.
A striking feature of the governmental system is
the huge size of cabinets. The Constitution designates
twenty-eight minister-level portfolios, including
two (the ministries of defense and plan implementation)
held by the president. Additional ministers, however,
may be appointed to take responsibility for special
areas, such as the prevention of terrorism. District
ministers, who play a major role in local government,
are also designated. Including deputy ministers, a
cabinet at one time may have more than eighty members
chosen from the parliamentary ranks of the ruling
party. In the late 1980s, ministerial rank and the
resources made available through access to budgetary
funds were, for individual legislators, an invaluable
source of patronage and local level influence.
The president can announce a national referendum
to seek popular approval of proposals of pressing
national importance, including bills that have been
rejected by Parliament. Other presidential prerogatives
include declarations of war and peace, the granting
of pardons, and the exercise of broad emergency powers.
In the event of a public emergency, the president
can invoke the power to enact measures without the
consent of Parliament. The legislature, however, must
convene no more than ten days after the chief executive's
proclamation of an emergency. If a majority of the
legislature fails to approve the state of emergency
after two weeks, it automatically lapses; it lapses
after ninety days if a simple majority of the members
of Parliament do not approve its continuation.
The president is popularly elected for a term of
six years. He or she may serve no more than two consecutive
six-year terms. The Constitution stipulates, however,
that the term of a chief executive who assumes office
other than through a normal presidential election
will not be counted as one of the two. Whether this
means that Jayewardene's first term from 1977 to 1982,
which began with his election as prime minister in
the 1977 general election, would be counted toward
the two-term total was unclear. The Third Amendment
to the Constitution, approved in 1982, allows the
president to hold a presidential election at any time
following his fourth year in office.
The Constitution states that the president is responsible
to Parliament and can be impeached by the legislature
if that body approves the measure by a two-thirds
vote and the Supreme Court also calls for his or her
removal from office. Grounds for impeachment include
mental or physical incapacitation, moral offenses,
abuses of power, bribery, treason, and blatant violations
of the Constitution. The prime minister assumes the
responsibilities of the president if the incumbent
is disabled or is overseas. Parliament chooses a new
president if the incumbent dies or leaves office before
the end of his or her term.
During the mid-1980s, the powers vested by the Constitution
in the chief executive, the unprecedented majority
that the UNP won in the July 1977 election, the 1982
postponement of a new general election until 1989,
and a strong tradition of party discipline provided
Jayewardene virtually unchallenged control over Parliament.
The Constitution gives the legislature a term of six
years. But in November 1982, Jayewardene, elected
the previous month to a second six-year presidential
term, announced his decision to hold a popular referendum
on a constitutional amendment, the fourth, which would
extend the life of Parliament from six to twelve years
(a general election was due by August 1983). As justification
for the amendment, he cited both his popular mandate
(he won 52.9 percent of the votes cast in the October
1982 presidential election compared to 39.1 percent
for his nearest opponent) and the threat posed by
an "antidemocratic, violent and Naxalite group"
associated with the opposition SLFP that allegedly
planned to seize power and "[tear] up all constitutional
procedures." (The term "Naxalite" refers
to a leftist, revolutionary and violent movement that
emerged in India during the 1960s.)
After approval by Parliament and the Supreme Court,
the amendment was supported by a narrow 54.7 percent
of the voters on December 22, 1982. The fact that
the referendum took place during a state of emergency
and that there were widespread reports of voter fraud
and intimidation caused many to doubt the legitimacy
of this procedural exercise. Observers noted, however,
that members of the opposition were allowed to express
their opinions freely prior to the December 22 vote
and were given access to the media, including television.
The Constitution stipulates that when the next general
election is held, the number of members of Parliament
shall be increased from 168 to 196.
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| Supreme
Court |
Although Sri Lanka's colonial heritage fostered a
tradition of judicial freedoms, this autonomy has
been compromised since independence by constitutional
changes designed to limit the courts' control over
the president and by the chief executive's power to
declare states of emergency. Also, Parliament's willingness
to approve legislation, such as the 1979 Prevention
of Terrorism Act, vested the government in the late
1980s with broad powers to deal with subversives,
or those deemed subversive, in an essentially extralegal
manner. Observers in the late 1980s reported that
the act facilitated widespread abuses of power, including
the systematic torture of detainees, because it recognized
the admissibility as evidence of confessions to the
police not made in the presence of a magistrate.
Under the Constitution, the highest court is the
Supreme Court, headed by a chief justice and between
six and ten associate justices. Supreme and High Court
justices are appointed by the president. Superior
Court justices can be removed on grounds of incompetence
or misdemeanor by a majority of Parliament, whereas
High Court justices can be removed only by a judicial
service commission consisting of Supreme Court justices.
The Supreme Court has the power of judicial review;
it can determine whether an act of Parliament is consistent
with the principles of the Constitution and whether
a referendum must be taken on a proposal, such as
the 1982 extension of Parliament's life by six years.
It is also the final court of appeal for all criminal
or civil cases.
Introduction to Constitution
After coming to power, Jayewardene directed the rewriting
of the constitution. The document that was produced,
the new Constitution of 1978, drastically altered
the nature of governance in Sri Lanka. It replaced
the previous Westminster-style, parliamentary government
with a new presidential system modeled after France,
with a powerful chief executive. The president was
to be elected by direct suffrage for a six-year term
and was empowered to appoint, with parliamentary approval,
the prime minister and to preside over cabinet meetings.
Jayewardene became the first president under the new
Constitution and assumed direct control of the government
machinery and party.
The new regime ushered in an era that did not auger
well for the SLFP. Jayewardene's UNP government accused
former prime minister Bandaranaike of abusing her
power while in office from 1970 to 1977. In October
1980, Bandaranaike's privilege to engage in politics
was removed for a period of seven years, and the SLFP
was forced to seek a new leader. After a long and
divisive battle, the party chose her son, Anura. Anura
Bandaranaike was soon thrust into the role of the
keeper of his father's legacy, but he inherited a
political party torn apart by factionalism and reduced
to a minimal role in the Parliament.
The 1978 Constitution included substantial concessions
to Tamil sensitivities. Although TULF did not participate
in framing the Constitution, it continued to sit in
Parliament in the hope of negotiating a settlement
to the Tamil problem. TULF also agreed to Jayewardene's
proposal of an all-party conference to resolve the
island's ethnic problems. Jayewardene's UNP offered
other concessions in a bid to secure peace. Sinhala
remained the official language and the language of
administration throughout Sri Lanka, but Tamil was
given a new "national language" status.
Tamil was to be used in a number of administrative
and educational circumstances. Jayewardene also eliminated
a major Tamil grievance by abrogating the "standardization"
policy of the United Front government, which had made
university admission criteria for Tamils more difficult.
In addition, he offered many top-level positions,
including that of minister of justice, to Tamil civil
servants.
While TULF, in conjunction with the UNP, pressed
for the all party conference, the Tamil Tigers escalated
their terrorist attacks, which provoked Sinhalese
backlash against Tamils and generally precluded any
successful accommodation. In reaction to the assassination
of a Jaffna police inspector, the Jayewardene government
declared an emergency and dispatched troops, who were
given an unrealistic six months to eradicate the terrorist
threat.
The government passed the Prevention of Terrorism
(Temporary Provisions) Act in 1979. The act was enacted
as a temporary measure, but it later became permanent
legislation. The International Commission of Jurists,
Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations
condemned the act as being incompatible with democratic
traditions. Despite the act, the number of terrorist
acts increased. Guerrillas began to hit targets of
high symbolic value such as post offices and police
outposts, provoking government counterattacks. As
an increasing number of civilians were caught in the
fighting, Tamil support widened for the "boys,"
as the guerrillas began to be called. Other large,
well-armed groups began to compete with LTTE. The
better-known included the People's Liberation Organization
of Tamil Eelam, Tamil Eelam Liberation Army, and the
Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization. Each of these
groups had forces measured in the hundreds if not
thousands. The government claimed that many of the
terrorists were operating from training camps in India's
Tamil Nadu State. The Indian government repeatedly
denied this claim. With the level of violence mounting,
the possibility of negotiation became increasingly
distant.
Because Sri Lanka is a unitary rather than a federal
state, local government institutions have had a very
limited role in the political process. The country
traditionally has been divided into nine provinces,
which had played an important administrative role
during the British colonial era. The principal local
government subdivisions since the early 1980s have
been the twenty-four administrative districts (see
fig. 1). Before 1981 each district contained administrative
offices representing most national-level ministries
and known collectively as kachcheri (government offices).
Two officers of major significance at the district
level were the government agent and the district minister.
Government agents, appointed by the central government,
traced their origins to the colonial era, but the
office of district minister, which was filled by individuals
concurrently serving as members of Parliament, was
created after 1978. Because of the district ministers'
access to central government funds for patronage purposes,
they tended to diminish the power and influence of
the government agents.
In 1981 the kachcheri system and the subdistrict
system of elective village and town councils were
replaced by district development councils and subdistrict-level
units known as pradeshiya mandalaya (divisional council)
and gramodaya mandalaya (village council) (see fig.
11). The councils were created largely to satisfy
minority aspirations for local self-government and
were designed to exercise a significant measure of
autonomy, especially--as the name implies--in the
area of economic planning and development. Although
the district development councils served in the late
1980s as conduits for central government funds, they
also had been granted the authority to collect taxes
and manage their own budgets and were given responsibility
for educational and cultural activities within their
spheres of jurisdiction. Each district council consisted
of some members appointed by the central government
and others elected by local constituents for four-year
terms on the basis of proportional representation.
Their deliberations were presided over by the district
ministers who were, as mentioned, members of Parliament
(they did not in all cases represent in Parliament
the district in which they exercised this function);
government agents served as council secretaries.
The subdistrict-level mandalaya, or councils, were
designed to promote village-level democracy and provide
support for district development council programs.
The changes implemented in 1981 affected the 75 percent
of the population living in rural areas. Twelve municipal
and thirty-eight urban councils continued to function
in urban areas in the late 1980s.
Constitution
