Sri Lanka’s parliament on Friday passed a constitutional amendment aimed at trimming presidential powers, beefing up anti-corruption safeguards and helping to find a way out of the country’s worst financial crisis since independence.
Sri Lanka has struggled for months to find enough dollars to pay for essential imports such as fuel, food, cooking gas and medicine.
Many Sri Lankans blame former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for implementing multiple failed policies including tax cuts, a now-reversed ban on chemical fertilisers and delays in seeking IMF assistance that resulted in the country defaulting on its foreign debt for the first time in history.
As a response to widespread protests, Rajapaksa had backed constitutional reforms that would reduce the powers of the executive presidency and allocate them to parliament in June. He resigned the next month after protesters stormed his office and residence.
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