Most Sri Lankans in favour of scrapping executive presidential system, CPA poll shows
View(s):More than 36 per cent of Sri Lankans are ‘extremely agreeable’ to replacing the Executive Presidency system with one where the country is headed by a directly elected Prime Minister while 29.4 per cent say that they are ‘somewhat agreeable’, an opinion poll by Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), has revealed. It conducted an opinion poll to gather views of the communities on key issues currently being discussed in Sri Lanka’s Constitutional reform process and what change they hope to see in the new Constitution. It recorded public perceptions with regard to the Bill of Rights, devolution, police and land powers, role of religion in the Constitution, merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and other key proposals, a media release from the CPA said.
Article 9 of the present 1978 Constitution states that Buddhism shall be given ‘the foremost place’ and that it is the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana. ”54.9 per cent of Sri Lankans are extremely favourable towards the inclusion of the clause on Buddhism in a new Constitution while 18.2 per cent are not at all in favour. From an ethnic perspective, the community that most favourable is the Sinhalese community with 70.4 per cent rating extremely favourable. Majority from the Tamil (75.9 per cent), Up Country Tamil (56.6 per cent) and Muslim (62.8 per cent) communities are not at all in favour of the inclusion,” the release said.
When people were asked how they think police powers in Sri Lanka ought to be exercised, 41.2 per cent of Sri Lankans said – according to the poll – that it ought to be exercised exclusively by the Central Government while 23.6 per cent said it should be shared between the Central and Provincial Governments. Almost 50 per cent from the Sinhalese community and 31.3 per cent from the Up Country Tamil community believe that it should be exercised exclusively by the Central Government, the release said. ”Majority from the Tamil and Muslim communities however do not share this opinion – 31.8 per cent from the Tamil community believe it should exercised exclusively by the Provincial Governments while 37.7 per cent stated it should be shared between the Central and Provincial Governments. 34.1 per cent from the Muslim community also stated that it should be shared,” it was noted.
On the power to allocate and administer State land, 37 per cent of Sri Lankans believe that the power should be held exclusively by the Central Government, 23.3 per cent said exclusively by the Provincial Governments while 24 per cent said it should be shared between the two. From an ethnic perspective, once again we see a difference in opinion between the communities where most Sinhalese (42.4 per cent) say that it should be held exclusively by the Central Government while 48.4 per cent of Tamil, 38.6 per cent of Up Country Tamil and 27.2 per cent of Muslim communities believe that it should be held exclusively by the Provincial Governments. CPA said 36.3 per cent of Sri Lankans are extremely agreeable to replacing the Executive Presidency system with one where the country is headed by a directly elected Prime Minister, while 29.4 per cent say that they are somewhat agreeable.
It said that when asked how agreeable they are towards a merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, 30.1 per cent of Sri Lankans said that they are extremely disagreeable while 25.4 per cent said extremely agreeable. Majority from the Tamil (73.2 per cent) and Up Country Tamil (81 per cent) communities are extremely agreeable towards a merger while 34.6 per cent of Sinhalese are extremely disagreeable. Muslim opinion is divided on this, with 30.4 per cent saying that they are extremely agreeable and 31 per cent saying that they are extremely disagreeable. Conducted in the 25 districts of the country, this survey captured the opinion of 1991 Sri Lankans from the four main ethnic communities. The selection of respondents was random across the country. Fieldwork was conducted from January 17 – 25, 2016, the release added.