Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader Parliamentarian Udaya Prabath Gammanpila said yesterday the President should dissolve Parliament using the powers vested with him under 33 (2) C of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
He was addressing the media yesterday at the PHU office.
Gammanpila said the dissolution of Parliament is the only solution for the crisis created by Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya.
'The Speaker says he cannot accept the Prime Minister appointed by the Executive as the head of the Legislature and he can only accept the former Prime Minister as the head of the legislature. It means that there now is a conflict between the Executive and the Legislature on the appointment of the Prime Minister,' he said.
“Only the general public holding the sovereign power and who voted for two parties to come into power can resolve this issue. So Parliament should be dissolved and the authority to decide the Prime Minister should be given to the people of the country,” the MP said.
“The 19th Amendment brought in 2002 sought to remove the powers of President to dissolve Parliament and make provisions that the President can dissolve Parliament only on the basis of a resolution passed with a simple majority in Parliament. But this was challenged in the Supreme Court by several petitioners and the Supreme Court gave a ruling that it should be approved by a two thirds majority in Parliament and approved by the people in a referendum.
The Article 70 of the Constitution says the President may by Proclamation, summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament provided that the President shall not dissolve Parliament until the expiration of not less than four years and six months from the date appointed for its first meeting unless Parliament requests the President to do so by a resolution passed by not less than two-thirds of the whole number of members,” he said.
He said that when amending Article 70, the section 33 (2) C was introduced in the 19th Amendment in 2015 in accordance with the judgment of the Supreme Court and added that the prevailing provision of the Constitution was 33 (2) C. According to that, “In addition to the powers, duties and functions expressly conferred or imposed on, or assigned to the President by the Constitution or other written laws, the President shall have the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament”.
The MP said that there should be a reason for mentioning President’s powers to dissolve Parliament in two places of the constitution. So the Article 70(1) shows how a President should act in a general situation and generally the President cannot dissolve Parliament without a two third majority. But the Article 32(2)C shows how the President should act when there is crisis and in such situation, the President has powers to dissolve Parliament.
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