The proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution seeks to repeal/amend all changes introduced by the 19th Amendment save three. They are the retention of five-year terms for the President and Parliament, the…
The proposed 20th amendment will be the death of free and fair elections in Sri Lanka. The study of political communications and digital propaganda for over a decade leaves no room for…
The Rajapaksas are in a hurry. They have a constitution to make and a country to remake. Currently, the road to both destination seems as wide and as clear as a super-highway….
Sri Lanka’s August 5 parliamentary elections saw the Sri Lanka People’s Front (SLPP) sweep into power with 145 seats by winning 6.8 million (59%) of the valid votes cast. A two-thirds majority,…
Among as many as nineteen amendments introduced to the Constitution of 1978, three stand as having positively contributed to fulfilling Sri Lankan society’s democratic needs. The first is the Thirteenth Amendment. The…
The true value and effectiveness of the 19th Amendment for improving governance in Sri Lanka has been a matter of debate for some time now. Political representatives and political parties have expressed…
These could be the last days of the Nineteenth Amendment. If not of its entirety, at least of a part of it, even a substantial part of it. The message that the…
The governing party’s general election campaign is centred on obtaining a two-thirds majority in the next Parliament. It is expected that the governing party will fulfil its wish – if not directly,…
Photo courtesy The COVID-19 crisis took hold in Sri Lanka at a time when Parliament stood dissolved ahead of a general election. The gravity of the public health emergency, and what it…
Image courtesy ‘Hope in Darkness ‘- Leonard Cohen When ‘we the people’ is replaced with ‘me the people’ there is no denying that democracy is in grave jeopardy. Autocratic governance is…
Building on the critically acclaimed Corridors of Power project, Frames of Power is a pioneering & unique web platform for citizens to visually model & compare perceptions of constitutional power. Democratic by design,…
Photo courtesy The current constitution of Sri Lanka is commonly referred to as the “JR Constitution” due to the nature of its inception. Its birth and enactment have a long and convoluted…
Why is it so difficult for the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU) to acknowledge 18 as the minimum age of marriage? What is interesting is that the Qur’an does not specify a…
Almost four months after the Easter Sunday bombings, Sri Lanka continues to operate under a State of Emergency. National security has once again become a central topic. The Easter Sunday bombings revealed…
An old Greek fable goes something like this: A dog lying in a manger who did not eat grain, nevertheless prevented the horse who approached the manger from being able to eat…
