Hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts, Sri Lanka is facing runaway inflation and shortages of fuel and other essentials, which has pushed former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cabinet resign this month.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said that his government has proposed to enact laws to give more power to parliament, adding that more than a dozen independent committees would be set up for parliamentary control and oversight of financial matters.
“Under the new system we have proposed, the president will be accountable to parliament. The cabinet of ministers is also accountable to parliament,” Wickremesinghe said in a televised address.
Approval of the proposal could take several weeks, as it must be approved by the cabinet and the Supreme Court, after which parliamentary approval will be sought.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Mahinda, have backtracked on a series of electoral, police and financial reforms passed by the previous government, months after taking power with a two-thirds majority in 2020.
Opposition leaders had accused the Rajapaksa government of disproportionately increasing presidential powers and diluting parliament’s role in law-making. (Writing: Sudarshan Varadhan; editing: Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Nick Macfie)