Premalal Jayasekara: The Murderer who sworn in as a lawmaker
Death of Lady Justice – Impartiality and the Rule of Law Axed
SLPP’s Premalal Jayasekara today becomes the first convict facing death sentence to take oath as a legislator in Sri Lankan Parliament. Jayasekara was convicted in July of murdering an opposition activist after opening fire at an election rally in 2015. Let’s discuss the details of how Premalal Jayasekara journey from MP to Death row and back as a death-row MP.
The Law
Article 91 of Consitution of Sri Lanka discuss the Disqualification for election as a Member of Parliament.
Article 91 (1) (a) directs to Article 89.
It’s crystal clear that convicted murderers cannot be sworn in as Members of parliament according to the Constitution.
The Evidence and the Judgement
In the shooting incident Shantha Dodangoda, also known as Dodangodage Susil Perera, was killed and two others were seriously injured. Victim's last words before death had stood as concrete evidence against the suspects, whilst there were too many witnesses to the case, as the crime was committed in public. 59 witnesses had been produced to the case.
On the 31st of July, Premalal Jayasekera was sentenced to death by the Ratnapura High Court as he was found guilty on the indictments of shooting dead one person and injuring two others.
The Nawaz Factor
Abdul Hameed Dileep Nawaz is an Appeals Court Judge who was promoted as the President of the Court of Appeals as the Gotabaya Rajapaksa‘s first major judicial nomination. Nawaz is the first sitting judge and the senior-most judicial officer to have been charge-sheeted by the Bribery Commission for corruption during his time at the Attorney General’s Department. Since he was charged by the Bribery Commission, Nawaz has been prevented from hearing cases at the Court of Appeal by every President of the CA who has held office. Judge Nawaz was one of the judges of the two-judge panel who granted permission for Premalal Jayasekera, to attend Parliament sittings.
Final Word
Convicted Murderers must not be in the parliment, everybody generally agrees. But Premalal Jayasekara contested in the General Election and won the 2nd most preferential votes from Rathnapura District. He was on death row, people of Rathnapura knowingly vote for a convicted murder and choose him as one of their representatives. Democracy is defined as the government in which the supreme power is vested in the people. In this case the people wanted a convicted murder in the parliament; so they got what they want. Lawfully or unlawfully Democracy Prevailed. People say currept politicians are the reason why this country is not thriving as it should be. But politicians are a reflection of what we are. We the people are the real problem.