The scholars who support the President have suggested that the proposed National Executive Council should be activated immediately in order to reduce the strong influence of the Rajapaksas and other Pohottu strongmen on President Ranil Wickremesinghe and prepare a regime that will be accepted by the people of the country and the world sources said.
As the hope for an All party government fading away they have suggested to establish the proposed National Executive Council soon. It was emphasized that the need pf certain control on the undue influences from Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna would be vital for the governance by President Wickramasinghe.
The most immediate reasons for this situation are the fact that 37 state ministers had to be appointed last week and pressure from the party’s stalwarts on the president to appoint more cabinet ministers this week.
It is said that there have been requests to appoint members of the Rajapaksa family to the cabinet and accordingly, it is said that the founder of SLPP, Basil Rajapaksa, has been asked to give Namal Rajapaksa a ministerial post again. However, so far the decision has not been made whether to give the ministerial position to Namal Rajapakse and besides him, it has been suggested that Mahindananda, Aluthgamages Rohitha Abeygunawardena and Johnston Fernando should also be given cabinet ministerial posts.
The state ministers have demanded the previous privileges regardless of the current economic crisis and in this situation the president had to issue a new circular on state expenditure.
However, it is stated that the new circular has not had a big impact on the high cost of these new state ministers.
In view of such situation, attention has been paid to appointing the National Executive Council as soon as possible, but the opposition has not yet given a positive response in this regard, according to political sources.
