Never took place… Nobody brought it up… The intense twitter argument between Ranil and Charita is entertaining but challenging.

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – 09 February 2023
‘Deceit and lies are not suitable for the future. Change must begin within us, and everything must change for the better. Parliamentary oversight committees should be established to verify it. Representatives have not been appointed for this yet. I request the Parliament to do it as soon as possible….’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – 09 February 2023
I don’t have a political group in this parliament. As President, I represent the entire nation. I don’t do party politics. I will implement the proposals through the Parliament. Let us move forward democratically, united in consensus to support the nation’s recovery…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
On January 23, I raised the issues related to the local government elections in Parliament. In this economic crisis there should be expenditure management and financial regulation. As said, I am not involved in election campaigns. My priority is to save our economy for a stable country…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
The members of the Election Commission stopped working under the transitional provisions of the Constitution passed by the Parliament. It is only a temporary commission accountable to Parliament, and they should have worked with Parliament to prevent procedural errors…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
‘I, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General met with the Election Commission and spoke not to postpone the election but to ask for unity in decision-making as there are disagreements on the measures to be taken. Meanwhile, even during the most important days of the election process, the Attorney General had informed that even the documents and reports of the Election Commission’s deliberations had not been prepared….’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
The Election Commission has failed to follow the provincial rules in handling the local elections. Notes and documents of its meetings are not maintained. There was no quorum in the meetings of the Election Commission which decided on the date of the election, thus raising questions about its validity…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
‘Requests for funds have been received from government officials who have not obtained the necessary legal permission. Such requests cannot be met as doing so would expose those who are subject to disciplinary action. Violation of good governance rules will lead to further instability….’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
‘We are facing an economic crisis, and we need to plan our expenses well. A budget is prepared for the entire year. Therefore, we cannot release funds on an ad hoc basis. The IMF we are discussing. We have to keep a financial reserve in case the funds are not received in March as expected…”

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
“We still don’t have clarity about the election costs. The Election Commission initially estimated Rs 10 billion, but later asked for only Rs 6 billion. The police demanded more money than their estimates. We cannot afford ad hoc payments now, so I have requested the Finance Ministry to study them and come up with a proper budget…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
‘I agree that there should be a Select Committee inquiry into who is responsible for destroying the economy. The opposition should have ensured this but they did not. I request the Prime Minister to take steps to stop this by the third week of March…’

Ranil Wickramasinghe – Twitter – February 25, 2023
‘Economy is my priority. If the economy does not improve, we will not have a country. There is one issue we need to focus on. Is it possible to lose the country and keep the constitution? The constitution can be protected only if the country is protected…’

What is this story? Today I have to write you an article that is in a way similar to a play script. Who said the above controversial lines? It is none other than Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe, the country’s present president. This series of notes that he kept in the ‘Twitter’ network, which is considered to be the most important social media site in the world today, recently created a controversy around the world. Especially in Sri Lanka, this incident was a matter of great discussion.

The majority of the remarks the Sri Lankan president made on his Twitter account in a single day were in reference to the country’s ongoing political crisis. That is, those remarks were made with the nation’s current election crisis in mind. These comments were made in English on Twitter and have been translated into Sinhala for our readers  (this is a translation from a Sinhala  the original article was written in Sinhala). A recent war of worbel  duels started as a result of these remarks made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe. That is, a scholar in Sri Lanka turned it into a duel. He is Professor Charita Herath, a representative of the Free People’s Assembly in the Parliament.

As a result, this can be regarded as the first instance in which a Member of Parliament engaged the President in a Twitter argument. It was an extraordinary occurrence that a Member of Parliament who is connected to the current state regime responded in this manner, even though various other members of the society had responded to the President in this situation in different ways. This might be seen as a counterattack instead of a sincere response. Let’s find out what Professor Charita Herath said during this debate, then.

Professor Charitha Herath, who is currently 55 years old, represented the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna until 2022. He is a National List MP. He is also a University Professor of Philosophy. He once held the post of the Secretary of the Ministry of Mass Media and the Chairmanship of the COPE Committee under the Rajapaksa Government. Professor Charitha Herath had recently tweeted against President Ranil Wickremesinghe as follows.

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
It is the function of the Election Commission to call an election at a legally defined time (mentioned in the Constitution or Act). Accordingly, they have fulfilled the task and published the gazette notification with the signatures of all the members of the commission…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
As a citizen and a member of parliament, I do not see any legal problem there. Even if there is a problem in the procedure of the meeting of the Election Commission, it is not the President’s job to use his powers to ask about such things. Such procedural matters should be dealt with in the courts or in Parliament…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
Although we must remember that under Article 40 of the constitution, he is the successor president, Ranil Wickramasinghe is a leader of a party that is running for election the United National Party. In such a situation, according to democratic standards, it is not appropriate to call the Election Commission to his office and ask for the minutes of the meeting…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
In this context, under the instructions of the President, even the Attorney General has no right to examine the minutes of the meeting of an independent election commission. That is especially due to the fact that the President is the leader of a party contesting that election. Realistically, we should understand this situation well…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
‘it is good. Ranil Wickramasinghe has raised a problem of good governance here. He is of the opinion that the Election Commission has violated the rules of good governance. But in my view the violation of good governance is mainly demonstrated by the actions of the Attorney General, the Finance Secretary and the Government Printer….’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
Article 03 of the Constitution states that the sovereignty of the Republic resides in the people of the country, and three basic aspects of sovereignty have been analyzed. They are 01. Governing power, 02. Fundamental rights, 03. Inalienable people’s voting power…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
I think the Election Commission has acted in accordance with the constitution and democratic norms of our country. It is unconstitutional to call an election within the statutory period and to have reacted quite unconstitutionally to such a legal initiative…’

Charita Herath – Twitter – February 26, 2023
Article 104(B)2 of the Constitution states that the Finance Secretary, the Government Printer and all other public officers shall act in accordance with the orders issued by the Election Commission during an election. In the context of the election postponement drama, what needs to be done is to investigate the process of the Attorney General, the Finance Secretary and the constitutional roles of the government in relation to the election…’

I hope this article is clear to you now. Professor Charitha Herath responded to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tweets on February 25 on the following day, February 26. Hence, this is a sort of digital duel. This incident has caused a lot of controversy in the social media and the general society.

In this unique incident, Member of Parliament Charitha Herath has pointed out that constitutional provisions have been cited which state that matters related to elections are not with the executive but with the Election Commission. As a final clear conclusion, he states that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has no role in deciding the date of an election, and that the National Election Commission has the legal authority. He has shown that situation very logically.

Another wonderful and interesting fact is being revealed in this environment. It is the opinions of various people who have been expressed through the common society against the statements made by President Ranil Wickramasinghe about the constitution of this country. It is a very long article and there is no space to write all the information here. Let’s see it in summary.

The president has brought a stupid and ridiculous argument. When the constitution which is the foundation of a country is destroyed, anarchy occurs and through that anarchy, after that you lose the country too. Also, next time you can say my priority is the economy and abolish the Parliament and the Supreme Court. People say that you have violated everything today.

Priyantha Hettige

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