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The govt announces the appointment of a Cabinet sub-committee to look at the proposal for a brand new Constitution
Colombo: Sri Lanka’s main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) on Tuesday handed over to the parliamentary Speaker no-confidence motions against the SLPP coalition government and embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, even as the government announced the appointment of a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the proposal for a new Constitution.
“We met the Speaker at his residence and handed over two no-trust motions, the first one against the President under Article 42 of the Constitution and the other against the government,” SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara said.
Article 42 stipulates that the President is responsible to Parliament for the exercise, performance, and discharge of his functions.
Madduma Bandara said the party wants the motion to be taken quickly. The Parliament meets tomorrow for the first of eight sittings this month.
The SJB said they would field a candidate for the post of Deputy Speaker of Parliament. The position has fallen vacant with the resignation of the incumbent Ranjith Siyamabalapitiya.
Siyamabalapitiya is part of the SLFP of the former President Maithripala Sirisena, which had split from the SLPP coalition.
The main Tamil party along with former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) are to jointly move a no-trust motion against the President, which would imply that the House had lost confidence in him.
Experts said if the government would be defeated in the SJB motion, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Cabinet would have to resign. The TNA/UNP motion has no legal binding for the President to resign.
“This problem can only be solved if either the President or the Prime Minister resigned. It is up to them to make a decision,” Wickremesinghe said.
Over the weekend, a flurry of political meetings took place as Mahinda Rajapaksa declined to resign in order to make way for a unity government for an interim period.
On Tuesday, the government announced the appointment of a Cabinet sub-committee to look at the proposal for a brand new Constitution.
Any motion needs seven days’ notice before getting into the order paper for debate. The date had to be agreed upon at the party leaders’ meeting where the business of the House is agreed upon.
Both Rajapaksas are coming under increasing pressure to step down in the simmering economic meltdown where people struggle with all essentials, including having to put up with power cuts.
