Sri Lanka president wins constitutional power boost

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednedsay passed a constitutional amendment that grants President Mahinda Rajapaksa even more unchecked power, which had prompted opposition cries of a looming dictatorship.

Rajapaksa won 161 votes in favour of the 18th amendment

that removes a presidential two-term limit and more crucially, unwound an earlier amendment designed to de-politicise appointments to the police, judiciary, public service and electoral commissions.

Wednesday’s debate was largely a foregone conclusion as Rajapaksa had already engineered crossovers from opposition parties to boost his commanding parliamentary majority beyond the two-thirds, or 150 votes, required to change the charter.

Opposition and rights groups criticised the amendment, rushed through the supreme court and parliament in barely 10 days after the cabinet declared it an