COLOMBO: Eight members of the Opposition, who defied their party's whip and voted in favour of the 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka's Constitution to bolster the powers of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will face disciplinary action, party officials said on Friday.
The Parliament on Thursday passed the 20th Amendment to the Constitution with two-thirds majority.
The second reading of the 20th Amendment was passed in Parliament with 156 members voting in favour of the bill and 65 against it in the 223-member Parliament.
Only 213 members were present at the time of voting.
The government on September 2 gazetted 20A to replace the 19th Amendment introduced in 2015 that curtailed the powers of the president and strengthened the role of Parliament.
Among the defectors was the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya's (SJB) woman parliamentarian Diana Gamage.
"We will be taking disciplinary action against her," SJB general secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara said.
Gamage and seven other parliamentarians voted in favour of 20A.
Among them are six Muslim members from two Muslim constituent parties of SJB.
The sole Tamil defector was Aravind Kumar from Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPF).
TPF leader and parliamentarian Mano Ganesan said the party Politburo will take action against Kumar.
Interestingly, all members of parliament from the ruling Sri Lankan People's Party, who had expressed opposition to some of the clauses in the amendment, voted en bloc in support.
Inspired by the opposition within the government quarters, the Opposition had called for a separate vote on the clause which permits dual citizens to hold public office.
The vote was defeated with one plus from the Opposition.
None of those from the government supported the Opposition's call for a vote.
The 20A rolled back the pro-democracy, good governance 19A which curtailed presidential powers and made parliament more powerful.
It restores full legal immunity to the President, removing the provisions made in the 19A to take legal action against the President.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted full presidential powers to return as his SLPP had campaigned at two major elections to repeal 19A.
With their dominant majority in the assembly, the Rajapaksas have made it clear that they would amend the Constitution to bolster the powers of the president, reversing the work of the previous government to introduce more checks and balances and enhance the role of Parliament.
Rajapaksa wants a total constitutional overhaul and his position was reiterated in Parliament by Justice Minister Ali Sabry who said the work on a new Constitution was underway and it will be formulated and presented within an year.
Activists, already alarmed by the diminishing space for dissent in the island nation, fear that the latest amendment to the Constitution may lead to authoritarianism.
During the last November's presidential elections and last month's parliamentary elections, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that the 19A had made governance difficult as it created a rift between the executive president and the prime minister.
President Rajapaksa was elected in November last year with a mandate to abolish the 19A.
Interestingly, the current prime minister is the president's elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was earlier president of the country for two terms.