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As far as I know the last Presidential Election was 1999. This year is 2005. That would be a difference of 6 years, so there should be another Presidential Election this year. Queen Bandaranaike is claiming that she had a ‘secret’ oath-taking ceremony, which was really a year later – hence more presidency for Madam. If this flimsy fig-leaf over raw addiction to power holds I will lose some faith in Sri Lanka’s commitment to democracy. I would, however, gain faith in this country’s committment to absurdity. I think I’ll try this ‘secret oath’ business to see if I can get another year out of my webhost – no, wait, that would be retarded.

In her old age CBK has allied herself with her husband’s probable killers (The JVP) in order to simply hold on to power. With that power she has done absolutely nothing beyond hold it – as the stagnant economy and peace process show. Now she has taken the final step of simply refusing to leave. Six years is six years as far as I know, but Sri Lanka is weird. Here are some relevant sections of the Third Amendment to the Constitution. JR duct-taped the jackass Third Amendment on, which accounts for some of the confusion. The rest can be accounted for by the Bandranaikes being, in all probability, drunk.

*Chapter VII: The Executive*

30.2) The President of the Republic shall be elected to the office of President by the people, and shall hold office for a term of six years…

31.2) No person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the People shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the People [so this is the Queen’s last term]…

31.4) The term of office of the President shall commence on the fourth day of February next succeeding the date of his election

The person elected or succeeding to the office of President shall assume office upon taking and subscribing the oat or making and subscribing the affirmation, set out in the Fourth Schedule, in Sri Lanka before the Chief Justice or any other Judge of the Supreme Court.

32.1) The person elected or succeeding to the office of President shall assume office upon taking and subscribing the oat or making and subscribing the affirmation, set out in the Fourth Schedule, in Sri Lanka before the Chief Justice or any other Judge of the Supreme Court.

*Third Amendment*

# a. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the preceding provisions of this Chapter, the President may, at any time after the expiration of four years from the commencement of his first term of office, by Proclamation, declare his intention of appealing to the People for a mandate to hold office, by election, for a further term.
# Upon the making of a Proclamation under sub-paragraph (1) the Commissioner of Elections shall be required to take a poll for the election of the President

b, c. If JR – the amendor – was to die, yadda yadda

d. The person declared elected as President at an election held under this paragraph shall, if such person –

# is the President in office, hold office for a term of six years commencing on such date in the year in which that election is held (being a date after such election) or in the succeeding year, as corresponds to the date on which his first term of office commenced, *whichever date is earlier*
# is not the President in office, hold office for a term of six years commencing on the date on which the result of such election is declared.

Uh, so if the election was Dec 21st, 1999 then the Prez would assume office on Feb 4th, 2000. She took the oath on TV, so that means her term is up on Feb 4th, 2006. If CBK wants to pretend that didn’t happen, it still doesn’t matter. The Third Amendment defaults to the earliest date, which would actually be Dec 22nd 1999. Under any interpretation we need an election before then, in December. Since she has served two terms, we can maybe stop saving the Queen and maybe save the country. If someone can show me how the Constitution or anything allow Chandrika to serve 7 years instead of 6 years I would be much obliged. It will be interesting to see if the President can change her period by sheer force of will alone. I fail to see how menopause applies on a national level, but it could happen.