Pros and cons

The National Executive Council of Sri Lanka has decided to pass a resolution that will ensure Members of Parliament lose their seats and status if they switch parties. The Council is a high-level government advisory committee; the president, the prime minister and nine leaders of political parties are in the committee, set up on a proposal made by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. JVP is part of the line-up of Opposition parties that backed the common Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena in the recently-concluded presidential elections in the country. Interestingly, when elections were formally announced in Sri Lanka, Sirisena, then a senior Cabinet minister and general secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, defected to the Opposition and declared that he would challenge Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena went on to defeat Rajapaksa and is now president.