Motion moved in Lanka parliament to abolish presidency

Parliament was on Wednesday presented with a motion to abolish the current excessive president headed government system in Sri Lanka and replace it with a new one in which the prime minister is the head.

The motion was presented by opposition group Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front).

"This was an unkept promise over a long period of time. There were many pledges to abolish the presidency but never implemented," Vijitha Herath, a JVP legislator, told Parliament.

If approved former president Mahinda Rajapaksa stands to gain as he would then be free from the term bar in the current Constitution.

Rajapaksa, 73, who was twice elected to the post, is constitutionally barred from running to be president again.

Herath said the new motion aims at preventing too much power being conferred on an individual. "This (the existing system) has made an individual too powerful," he said.

The current president headed system was introduced in 1978 after Sri Lanka was under a Westminster model parliamentary system since 1948.

The system has been blamed for most of the political ills in the island country, including the long standing dispute with the Tamil minority for their demand for power sharing.

Since it was introduced, all parties have pledged to abolish it. Every president, since 1994, have elected to honour the pledge to abolish the presidency. However, the pledge was never kept.