Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 7450277" data-attributes="member: 92282">The Tamil National  Alliance (TNA) which is the single largest Tamil party in the Sri Lankan  parliament with 14 members, has said that the Rajapaksa government’s  constitutional proposals are unacceptable to the Tamils and other  minorities.“The proposals do not meet the needs of the  minorities. They will put the minorities at a disadvantage,” TNA MP for  Jaffna, Suresh Premachandran, told Express here on Tuesday. On  Monday, two cabinent ministers cum spokespersons of the ruling Sri Lanka  Freedom Party (SLFP) Susil Premajayantha and Maithripala Sirisena, said  that the government would do away with Proportional Representation  System (PRS) and replace it with the First Past the Post System (FPPS)  for the majority of the 225 seats in parliament.They also  said  that a 25 member upper chamber called the Senate would be give  representation to the minorities and the provinces. The existance of the  Senate would obviate the present requirement to get the prior approval  of provincial councils if any act affected their  rights, the  spokespersons said.The ruling party also announced that the  constitution would be changed to allow a person to serve as President  beyond the present two term limit.The proposals will be intoduced  in parliament in the next two weeks and the constitution will be  amended before President Mahinda Rajapaksa begins his second term on  November 17.  “The First Past the Post system will deny  representation to the minorities. The winner (who will in most cases  belong to the majority Sinhalese community) will take it all and the  minorities and small parties will get no representation. The  proportional representation system had room for smaller parties and the  minorities,” Premachandran explained.“As for the Senate giving  representation to the provinces. This is not going to be enough. What  the Tamils want is provincial autonomy as well as a share in the power  at the Centre,” he said.Premachandran further said that the  government’s plan to delimit the electoral constituencies would  adversely affect the Tamils and increase the representation of the  majority Sinhalese.“Because of the migration of about 10 lakh  Tamils due to the ethnic conflict, the Tamil population has come down.  In Jaffna peninsula for instance, we would have had 11 seats but  migration has brought it down to nine and it could go down further with  fresh delimitation,” he said.<a href="http://expressbuzz.com/world/rajapaksa%E2%80%99s-constitution-unacceptable-tna/172643.html" target="_blank">expressbuzz</a></blockquote>

Verification: Hata thunen beduwama keeyada? (60 bedeema thuna)

Top Bottom