Govt wants to scrap 19th Amendment : President

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today said he was looking to scrap the 19th Amendment to the Constitution as it does not have anything ‘good ‘ in it for the public.

The President's meeting with Newspaper editors and heads of electronic media institutions at the Presidential secretariat said that during the previous government’s term itself the complications of the 19th amendment were exposed.

‘The actions of the President itself were questioned. The Supreme court acted differently. If the Amendment was clear these complications cannot come’, he said.

The President was questioned if hopes to retain some of the positive aspects in the 19th Amendment, but he said that he does not see anything ‘good’ in it.

‘If there were good things in it, there cannot be complications’, he said.

The President also said that the Millieninum Challenge Cooperation (MCC) would be studied before taking a decision on it.

In response to another question regarding improving reconciliation, the President said that some politicians speak of proposals which cannot be implemented and among them was a Federal setup,  but he believes in development which would help the public.

He said, however if terrorism exist there was no use of speaking of reconciliation and that adequate measures have been taken to improve the security by improving on intelligence.

Commenting on the upcoming Parliamentary elections, he said that the existing Parliament would be dissolved in March and they would go for fresh elections.

He said  Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will lead the campaign.