Scrap presidential system: BT-Second Curve Poll reveals
Respondents to a survey asking whether the presidential system should be continued or scrapped and if so, to provide more power to Parliament, have provided a clear verdict: The presidential system should be scrapped.
However respondents in the poll conducted on the street (working class) and email (mostly intelligentsia) were divided on the kind of powers to be given to the Prime Minister and Parliament.
The poll was conducted amongst 400 respondents, 200 from the street by polling partner Second Curve and the balance on email by the Business Times.
To the question should the presidential system of government be scrapped, 62 per cent of the respondents in the Second Curve poll said “Yes” while 38 per cent disagreed. There was a larger percentage (83 per cent) in the email poll who said “Yes”.
However on the question of “Parliament is supreme with the Prime Minister becoming the head of Government unlike now when this position is held by the President”, the street responses disagreed with views of those from the email poll with 64 per cent (from the street) saying they were not in favour of the PM being the head of government. In the case of the email poll, 80 per cent agreed that the PM should be made the head of government, removing that position from the President.
According to the Second Curve research team, one of the striking differences in both polls was that while there were many comments made in the email poll, the comments received from the street were fewer than in previous polls. There was a sense of despair and frustration from the public over the recent political events in Sri Lanka, the clashes between the partners in the government, accusations between government ministers and the scramble for cabinet positions. “The public was essentially fed up with the recent events and said making comments were of no use,” one member of the team said.