COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's parliament on Thursday voted to give President Gotabaya Rajapaksa widespread powers to appoint top officials and dissolve the legislature after an acrimonious two-day debate during which the opposition accused him of becoming a constitutional"dictator".
The government, which gets political and diplomatic support from China, has said the bill seeks to strengthen Rajapaksa to implement a manifesto promising"strong leadership." Under reforms introduced in 2015, the president was not allowed to hold cabinet portfolios and could sack the 225-member legislature only after 4.5 years.Rajapaksa will be able to appoint judges to superior courts and other key government positions, a function previously assigned to a parliamentary oversight panel which included independent commissioners.
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