S.Lanka leader wins 3rd-term

Sri Lanka’s parliament yesterday passed constitutional reforms enabling President Mahinda Rajapakse to seek a third term, in changes critics say point to the country’s slide into autocracy.
The amendment scraps the two-term limit, allowing the populist Rajapakse, who was resoundingly re-elected for the second time in January, to stand at the next polls, scheduled for 2016.
Rajapakse, 64, secured the required two-thirds majority with 161 votes in the 225-member parliament, state television announced.
The main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), boycotted the vote in protest, and just 17 lawmakers voted against.
The bill, cleared on Tuesday by the Supreme Court, also hands the president increased power to appoint officials to key posts in the judiciary, police, election commission and central bank.
“We are presenting the 18th amendment to the constitution today because we believe it will give us a strong leader to fast-track economic development after the war,” Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne told parliament.
“Today marks the death of democracy,” said opposition lawmaker M. Sumanthiran, a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and human rights lawyer, during the parliamentary session before the vote.