Range says he only spoke of a Constitutional provision
United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara said yesterday that his statement calling for a referendum to extend the term of the President and Parliament is not an anti-democratic statement and requested other political parties to express their position on this matter.
“I have not made any anti-democratic statement. The statement I made is in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. I only talked of a Constitutional provision for a referendum. I only referred to Article 86 and 87 of the Constitution which provides the President with the power to submit to the people by referendum any matter which, in his opinion, is of national importance.
The referendum has to be conducted by the Elections Commission, while Parliament shall provide for all matters for the same,” he said while reading out the Constitutional provision.
“According to the Constitution, priority should be given to the people’s right to life. Some parties may oppose the opinion I presented and they may blame me. But I request them to come to a consensus as political parties and declare whether they are ready to continue the current economic reforms in the same way. I am asking other political parties whether they accept this programme or not. Please announce to the country whether this programme will be continued or not. I wanted to get everyone together to the programme that would move the country forward instead of going backwards.
“If the ongoing economic reforms are changed, the country will fall back on the same footing as before. No one wants to go back to that situation. Then we can come to an agreement that this programme will be maintained as it is and then we will go to the Presidential Election. That’s what I meant. If this arrangement is changed, the country will fall apart again. The shortage of fuel, the shortage of goods, and the queuing system that occurred in March 2021 will definitely occur again. Are we allowed to go to that situation again or will the country be strengthened firstly and then go for a Presidential Election? It is for the political parties to decide. It needs to be decided on behalf of the people and the country.
“I request the political parties to make a statement about this. Then let’s go for a Presidential Election. I have declared what the people expect. There is a doubt among the people that the programme carried out by the President will change.
“I only called upon Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and other political parties to state their stand on the matter. However, no one has come out with their official stand yet.
“They have not uttered a single word against this. So we can see their agreement through that. There are three types of elections in the Constitution, one is the referendum, the other is the Presidential Election and the other is the Parliamentary Election. Referendum is a powerful right that directly affects the people.”
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