{"id":202934,"date":"2019-06-26T12:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T06:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=202934"},"modified":"2019-06-27T00:50:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T19:20:13","slug":"desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sirisena who met with the media heads this morning has spoken in no unclear terms of his intention to abolish the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=19th+amendment\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">19th amendment<\/span><\/strong><\/a> to the Constitution before the upcoming Presidential election.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_190548\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190548\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-190548\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1-550x550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1-45x45.jpg 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-190548\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Sirisena<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Addressing the media heads gathered this morning Sirisena said he admits the country is in deep political instability and the reason behind the situation is the 19th amendment.<\/p>\n<p>He also said irrelevant of who is elected as the next President of Sri Lanka, any individual who loves the country must join forces to abolish the 19th amendment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a curse to the country and drafted on NGO requests!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sirisena forgets that he came into power with the election pledge of bringing a \u201819th amendment\u2019. What he is now seeking to crush is the people\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n<p>The 19th amendment passed in April 2015 and was hailed by many parties as a progressive move that tamed arbitrary powers of Executive Presidency while cancelling the adverse blows against democracy via the 18th amendment passed by Rajapaksas during their tenure to consolidate their power.<\/p>\n<p>He also pledged to implement the death penalty for four convicts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have already signed the death penalty for four drug dealers. They will be carried out in the near future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He also lashed out at the state owned Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation for spreading fake news about him. Sirisena claims it has falsely misquoted the numbers in his delegations during foreign tours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":190548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-26T06:34:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-26T19:20:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1083\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/\",\"name\":\"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-26T06:34:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-26T19:20:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":1083,\"caption\":\"President Sirisena\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2019-06-26T06:34:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-26T19:20:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":1083,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/","name":"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg","datePublished":"2019-06-26T06:34:28+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-26T19:20:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg","width":900,"height":1083,"caption":"President Sirisena"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/desperate-sirisena-seeks-to-abolish-19a-before-prez-polls\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Desperate Sirisena Seeks To Abolish 19A Before Prez Polls"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maithripala-Sirisena-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202937,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202934\/revisions\/202937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}