With the constitutional amendment, parliament will have more say in the appointment of key posts in the judiciary, the central bank and the government. So far, the president has been able to make decisions alone.
The reduction of the president’s powers was a key demand from protesters whose mass demonstrations over the summer had led to ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing abroad and his resignation. The protesters accused Rajapaksa and his long-time politically influential family of abuses of power and poor decisions that led to the island nation south of India’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Due to a lack of currency reserves, the country with its approximately 22 million inhabitants is unable to repay its national debt. The population has been struggling with bottlenecks for months and food prices have risen sharply.
Current president Ranil Wickremesinghe had spoken out in favor of political reform. He also managed to reach a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a four-year bailout program of $2.9 billion (€2.9 billion).
(SDA)