Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka)

Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka)

Agency overview
Formed	2015
Preceding	September 2015
Jurisdiction	Sri Lanka
Headquarters	Parliament
Agency executive	Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker

The Constitutional Council is the constitutional authority in Sri Lanka established in 2000 under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka.^[1] In 2010, Mahinda Rajapaksa established the Parliamentary Council to replace it. After Maithripala Sirisena was elected President, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe presented the new reforms to reinstate a new Constitutional Council in 2015.

Members

The membership of the Constitutional Council consists of ten members, of whom three are ex officio members and two are nominated to ensure ethnic representation. The Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and Speaker are compulsory members of the committee. The President and Prime Minister each name one members each and the Opposition Leader can nominate one person from the communities to which the compulsory members do not belong. These nominees will be subject to the approval of the parliament.

Champika Ranawaka was nominated by the president, and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was nominated by the Prime Minister, on September 9, 2015.^[2]*

Ex officio members

• 01. Karu Jayasuriya - Speaker
• 02. Ranil Wickramasinghe - Prime Minister
• 03. R. Sampanthan - Leader of the Opposition

Nominated members

• 04. Champika Ranawaka - nominated by the President
• 05.Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe - nominated by the Prime Minister
• 06 John Seneviratne - nominated by the Opposition Leader
• 07. Vijitha Herath - a person from the communities to which the compulsory members do not belong.^[3]

Members from the civil society

• 08 Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne
• 09 Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
• 10 Justice Shibly Aziz

Meetings

The first meeting of the new Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka was held on September 10, 2015.^[4] On the 1st meeting Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy and Shibly Aziz nominated as civil society representatives to the Constitutional Council, but their names must be approved by the parliament.^[5] Parliament met on September 22 and approved a proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe to appoint Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy and Shibly Aziz nominated as Civil Society representatives to the Constitutional Council.^[6]

Independent Commissions

The following independent commissions were established under the Constitutional Council, fulfilling one of the major promises of the United National Party led Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena during the 2015 presidential election.^[7]

Dr. Deepika Udagama was appointed as the new Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on 20th October, 2015. Sri Lanka also appointed members to Public Service Commission and the Police Commission on the same day. ^[8] Dharmasena Dissanayake has been appointed the Chairman of the Public Service Commission.^[9] the Police Commission media unit said today.^[10]Justice Titus Bodhipala Weerasuriya was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.^[11] The President gave approval for the most important independent election commission, former election Mahinda Deshappriya was elected the chairman. By November 15th, 9 out of 10 commissions were established with the promise given to the people from the Maithripala Sirisena and United National Party election manifestos in 2015 elections. ^[12]

References