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PAFFREL urges impartial civil society members in CC

07 Nov 2022

BY Mirudhula Thambiah Polls monitor People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) yesterday (6) called for credible and non-partisan members to be appointed to the quota of three civil society members in the Constitutional Council (CC) under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. Speaking to The Morning yesterday, PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi noted that a proper procedure must be adopted to appoint these independent commissions. “The three civil society members who would be appointed to CC should be credible, acceptable by the society, should have a good personality to tackle the politicians, knowledgeable, and there should also be a proper system to select them. It is good that the Speaker would call up applications for these members, but in the past, that process was not followed. Keeping the past in mind, a suitable and credible procedure must be followed,” he added. Hettiarachchi further said: “When Karu Jayasuriya was the Speaker, we made several attempts in this regard, calling on him to appoint independent commissions through a credible procedure. Following many attempts, they called for applications through advertisements to appoint independent commissions.”   He added that according to the 21st Amendment, the Government now has to appoint a CC, which will be the critical component of the said Amendment. The CC will represent 10 members, of which seven members cannot be accounted for, as they are all politicians, but the members selected from among civil society could be different.  “From the Speaker and Opposition Leader, to the Prime Minister and the President's Representative, all would be Parliament representatives. Only three persons will be from the civil society. Whoever is appointed to meet the quota, there should be some transparent mechanism and some sort of criteria to select these three individuals, because they should have a strong enough personality to deal with the rest of the seven politicians,” he added. Hettiarachchi further stated, the majority here are politicians who would represent the CC. Under this council, all the independent commissions will be appointed, as well as officials to top positions such as Chief Justice, Attorney General, and Inspector General of Police. “If they are unable to deal with the politicians, at the end of the day, society would say there is no point in establishing independent commissions. This was the situation the last time the CC appointed independent commissions. There is nothing wrong with independent commissions, but the issue is if they are unable to select better-suited persons for the positions, the purpose will be lost,” he added. Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told The Morning on 3 November that applications will be called to appoint three civil society members to the CC.  “I think we might have to call for applications to appoint civil society members to the CC. We have to call for applications and see. We will try to get the best out of the applications,” he added.  He also noted that the ex-officio members of the Parliamentary Council will meet on 9 November to constitute the CC and appoint its members.  “We will be meeting on 9 November. The ex-officio members will meet and decide as to how we should select the other members to the CC. There are 10 members to be appointed for the CC. Only four members exist in the ex-officio capacity, and those members will take a decision as to how we get the other vacancies filled. Once that is done, it will continue,” he added.  He further said that after the CC is constituted, a decision will be made in regard to the independent commissions.  Earlier, Abeywardana told The Morning that the CC will be established once the 21st Amendment to the Constitution is endorsed by him. Early last week, the Speaker endorsed the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.  Under the new Amendment to the Constitution, the CC would be established replacing the Parliamentary Council. This new council will have 10 members, including the Prime Minister, the Speaker (as its Chairperson), and the Opposition Leader.  


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