Sri Lanka 2004

Sri Lanka People

Yearbook 2004

Sri Lanka. After a long power struggle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the President dissolved the parliament in February and announced new elections. According to CountryAAH, the total population in Sri Lanka is 21,413,260 people in 2020. The President’s Organization The Freedom Alliance (SLFA) signed a cooperation agreement with the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), a party with roots in the extreme left but now strongly Sinhalese nationalist and hostile to Tamil separatism. SLFA won the election and regained government power, but without its own majority in parliament.

The new government’s weakness, in addition to its dependence on the JVP, which received four ministerial posts, was not both considered good for the attempts to restart the peace process with the Tamil guerrilla LTTE. An internal conflict within the Tamil separatist movement complicated the political situation even more. Several bombings and assassinations aimed at Tamils who cooperated with the government were interpreted as guerrilla revenge for alleged intercourse between the government and the departed commander Colonel Karuna.

During the year, the Norwegian government made new attempts to revive the peace process, but without results. The LTTE demanded that negotiations must be based on the guerrilla’s proposal for provisional local autonomy in the areas of north and east that the separatists partially control. Both the guerrillas and Sri Lanka’s donors looked with great skepticism at the opportunities for peace talks with a government in which the JVP participates. According to abbreviationfinder, SL stands for Sri Lanka in text.

Ironically, the tsunami disaster in December gave new hope for peace, when Sinhalese and Tamils united in the same grief and suffering. About 30,000 people died when the masses of water devastated large coastal areas. The disaster was also a severe blow to the Sri Lankan economy, and growth growth was estimated to slow down by a few percentage points in 2005.

Sri Lanka People

September

Constitutional proposal for increased presidential power

September 22

In line with its election promises, the ruling SLPP puts forward a series of proposals for constitutional amendments, all of which significantly strengthen the president’s powers. The proposals mean that the president regains the position of power he had before the Sirisena government limited presidential power in 2015 (see Political system). The proposals again give the president the right to appoint judges to the Supreme Court, and abolishes the parliament’s ability to review the president’s decisions on human rights issues and government spending. According to the proposals, the president will have the right to dissolve parliament after one year of the five-year term. Today is 4.5 years. The laws that are to guarantee the independence of the judiciary, the police, the state administration and the electoral authority from the executive branch (that is, the president and his government) are also being abolished. When the constitutional proposals are presented, protests and riots break out in parliament as well as demonstrations in the streets. The opposition wears mourning ribbons on their arms when the proposals are presented. See computerdo.com for practical information about Sri Lanka.

Death sentence sentenced to death takes place in parliament

September 8

The doomed politician Premalal Jayasekara from the ruling SLPP attracts attention when he is temporarily released from his prison cell and taken to a session in parliament where he won a seat in the 2020 election. Jayasekara was sentenced to death in August for killing an opposition supporter in a election meeting 2015. However, his verdict was handed down after the nominations for the election were completed, and thus he is entitled to his seat. Jayasekara is the first convicted murderer to be a member of the Sri Lankan parliament. He has been in Parliament since 2001.