Sri Lanka’s President Wins Bid to Regain Sweeping Powers
- Government wins super majority vote to amend constitution
- Supreme Court determined that four clauses needed referendum
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Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa succeeded in a bid to restore sweeping executive powers to his office after his government won a super majority vote to amend the constitution.
After two days of debate in parliament, Rajapaksa’s supporters on Thursday clinched 156 of 225 votes in the legislature in favor of changes that would concentrate authority in the hands of the president at the cost of the prime minister and the parliament, potentially putting at risk judicial independence and the law-making process.