Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila said that the 20th Amendment is a shrinking of people's sovereignty since only 145 Members of Parliament are directly elected by the people under the proposed system.

 

Speaking to Asian Mirror this morning, he pointed out that currently 196 MPs are being elected by people directly and only 29 are appointed through the national list. The new system is a shrinking of people's sovereignty and therefore it violates Statute 3 of the 1978 Constitution, Gammanpila said.

 

He added that his party will file a petition with the Supreme Court against the 20th Amendment basically on this ground.

 

Meanwhile he also said that there were several other deficiencies in the 20th Amendment which suggest that it has been prepared with no scientific basis.