• G.L. says process should take 2 months as per ex-Speaker Karu
• CoA gets new President, HC Judge appointed to CoA, CC elevates CoA Prez to SC 

The Constitutional Council (CC), at yesterday’s (30) meeting, decided to publish advertisements calling for applications to appoint members to seven independent commissions scheduled under Article 41B of the Constitution, including the Election Commission (EC), while Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Prof. G.L. Peiris stated that reconstituting the EC should take approximately two months, as it did three years ago when it was carried out under the Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya. 

Addressing the media yesterday, Prof. Peiris said that there would not be any problem if the EC is reconstituted, because it would take around two months to appoint members to the Commission as it was done three years ago by the CC. “There should be an advertisement published in the newspaper calling for applications to appoint members to the EC. Applications should be called as to who is suitable to hold such positions. A period of two weeks should be provided when calling for applications. After the applications are received, a deep study should be conducted. This Commission is going to exercise functions for three years. Former Speaker Jayasuriya had prepared a set of rules in regard to these, according to which, approximately two weeks would be taken to carry out this process,” he added. 

He further noted that it is a blatant lie to say that reconstituting the EC would create issues to the Local Government (LG) election and that it is therefore misleading the people.

Accordingly, the CC  further decided to publish the advertisement in tomorrow's (1 February) newspapers, calling for applications for the appointment as members of the Commissions specified in Schedule to Article 41B of the Constitution. The draft format of the application would be published on the official Parliament website. The deadline to submit applications is 15 February.

Schedule 1 under Article 41B states that members would be appointed to the EC, the Public Service Commission, the National Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, the Finance Commission, and the Delimitation Commission. 

The CC also considered the recommendation of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint the President of the Court of Appeal (CoA), Justice K.P. Fernando as a Judge of the Supreme Court (SC) to the post which fell vacant with the retirement of Justice L.T.B. Dehideniya. The CC unanimously approved the above recommendation. Further, the CC unanimously approved the nomination of Judge of the CoA, N.B.P.D.S. Karunarathna to be appointed as the President of the CoA, and the nomination of High Court Judge M.A.R. Marikkar to be appointed as a Judge of the CoA to the resultant vacancies.  

The CC met yesterday (30) in Parliament. The meeting was Chaired by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Parliamentarian Sagara Kariyawasam, and non-MP members Dr. Prathap Ramanujam, Dr. Dilkushi Anula Wijesundera, and Dr. Dinesha Samararatne were present at the Council meeting held yesterday.

Meanwhile, contradicting  a press release issued by Parliament earlier, which noted that an agreement had been reached to reconstitute the EC at the first meeting of the CC held on 25 January, Premadasa claimed that the same was not discussed at the said meeting. Speaking at a gathering on 26 January, Premadasa claimed: “At the CC meeting, there was no discussion on changing the current membership of the EC, nor did we discuss the calling for applications. I discussed this with the Speaker and Parliamentary Secretary General Dhammika Dasanayake and confirmed that we won’t be calling for any applications for the EC or for any commission, until the CC meets next Monday. When the discussion into calling applications was going on, I clearly asked that applications be called for the other Commissions, apart from the EC. But, it has been decided to call applications for all Commissions. We will take this decision at next Monday’s meeting.”