Abstract:
The Constitution of 1978 introduced the Executive Presidential system for the
first time in Sri Lanka. The Executive President is vested with wider powers
including the power to appoint and remove the Prime Minister. However the
19th Amendment to the Constitution diminished the Executive President’s power
to a considerable amount thereby the power of the president to remove the
Prime Minister is subject to lawful limitations. The constitutional restrictions
on the removal of Prime Minister from the post have been attacked severely
with the appointment of former President MahindaRajapaksa as the new Prime
Minister while sacking the incumbent RanilWickremesinghe, by the Executive
President MaithripalaSirisena on 26th October 2018. Subsequently the President
MaithripalaSirisena dissolved the Parliament. With the appointment of a new
Prime Minister, and the dissolution of Parliament a constitutional crisis arose and
people are skeptical as to whether the President is placed above the Constitution
in Sri Lanka. This paper focuses only on the constitutionality of the appointment
of new Prime Minister on 26 October 2018. The objective of the research is to
analyze the constitutionality of the appointment of Hon.MahindaRajapaksa as the
Prime Minister and its impact on the principles of constitutionalism, rule of law,
democracy and good governance. To this end a qualitative research is carried out,
the relevant constitutional provisions, the judicial determinations and the opinion
expressed by different stake holders over the matter are dealt with in much detail.
