A heated controversy has surfaced over President Maithripala Sirisena's moves to abolish the Executive Presidency, a day after the Elections Secretariat's Gazette notification to declare the Presidential election.

The President's move, however, has elicited a positive response from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who had discussed the matter at a pre-Cabinet meeting earlier today.

The group supporting UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa have opposed moves to abolish the Executive Presidency. Minister Harin Fernando said any move in this regard should only be discussed after the Presidential election.

It was reported that heated arguments over abolition of Executive Presidency at the pre-Cabinet meeting. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is reported to have had a strong exchange of words with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, a prominent member of the Chandrika Kumaratunga governmet which came to power on the promise of abolishing Executive Presidency.

Samaraweera was also a key campaigner for Maithripala Sirisena in 2015, the common candidate of the opposition who promised to abolish the Executive Presidency in 100 days.

However, the matter was taken up at the emergency Cabinet meeting at 3 PM this evening. However, it is learnt that the Cabinet meeting did not yield any outcome as the ministers decided not to pursue the matter at this stage. Minister Mano Ganesan tweeted, "Special cabinet meeting on Aboloshing executive presidency unanimously decided after heated arguments not to discuss this matter NOW when EC has gazetted presidential elections. Vast majority of govt ministers declared that "we will go for presidential elections and WIN"