colombo sri lankas embattled prime minister mahinda rajapaksa on tuesday proposed to restore the 19th amendment to the constitution to curb presidential powers and empower parliament as protests intensified in the island nation against his government over its handling of the economyaddressing parliament on the first day after the traditional sinhala and tamil new year prime minister rajapaksa said it is important that a solution to the multiple crises is found on a solid economic political and social foundationi believe a constitutional change must take place as a start i believe implementing the 19th amendment with necessary and timely changes is the best short term solution for the current situation in the country said premier rajapaksait is my belief that 19a has to be revived with certain amendments as a short term solution he told the housethe 19a adopted in 2015 pruned presidential powers by empowering parliament above the executive presidenthowever the 19a was scrapped after his brother gotabaya rajapaksa won the november 2019 presidential electionwith the blessings of the president we must walk towards broader constitutional reform in the future said the prime ministerspeaker mahinda yapa abeywardana told the house that a special meeting was held yesterday to arrive at short and long term solutions from within parliament to address the current political crisisa number of party leaders called for the drafting of a new constitution as a long term measure and the strengthening of parliament by bringing in the twentyfirst amendment to the constitution as a short term mechanism abeywardana saidsupporting the prime minister expremier and united national party leader ranil wickremesinghe whose government carried out the 19th amendment said i am happy to take the 19th amendment back to the nation as the former prime minister who proposed itthe only request i have is respectfully abolish the 20th amendment as soon as possible to bring in the 19th amendment said wickremesinghethe rajapaksa government in recent weeks has been facing public protests over fuel and gas queues alongside shortages of other essentials sri lanka is in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in the countrys history due to a crippling forex shortageprotests demanding the resignation of president gotabaya rajapaksa and his sri lanka podujana peramunaled government have intensified as shortages continued and prices soaredwhen the house met on tuesday nearly 41 members of the ruling coalition took opposition seats they had declared independence from the ruling coalitionthe opposition reiterated the call for the government to resign as that was the demand of the protestersnow the parliament is to set in motion a constitutional reform process parliament was told on mondaya statement issued by the prime ministers office on monday said that prime minister mahinda rajapaksa intends to propose a new constitutional amendment to the cabinet to fulfil the peoples aspirationsthe prime minister is expected to propose to the cabinet a constitutional amendment that would include the executive judiciary and the legislatureprime minister mahinda rajapaksa said he pays special attention to the requests from various quarters