Common Candidate Excites Popular Imagination

[dr Jehan Perera]

The question mark that hangs over the presidential election due in October this year is not going away. The answer to it keeps getting put off. The latest is the government’s proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate ambiguity in the term of the president from six to five years. The Supreme Court has thrice affirmed the legitimacy of the 19th Amendment which reduced the term of the presidency. Academic scholars such as Dr Nihal Jayawickrama have raised the quetion why nine years later, without any issue having been raised by the Supreme Court or by any other court or tribunal, or in parliament, or in any other forum, the government proposes to amend the constitution for the sole purpose of replacing the words “six years” with the words “five years”. 

In the meantime, the Supreme Court has dealt severely with a fundamental rights petition before it that sought the postponement of the presidential election. The petition filed in the Supreme Court requested the court to prevent the Election Commission from declaring the next presidential election. The petitioner argued that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which reduced the President’s tenure to five years from six, was not passed properly. 

These maneuverings taking place in Colombo have not excited the imagination of the potential voters in the north. They appear to be least interested in them perhaps because it is a matter outside of their control. I spent three days in the north, in Vavuniya, Jaffna and K...