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We will reduce Government to less than 113 MPs: Coalition partners

25 Mar 2022

 
  • Coalition partners threaten to erase Govt.’s parliamentary majority
  • Wimal pledges never to campaign for ‘Rajapaksas’
  • 11 govt. parties brief chief prelates on future plans
  BY Buddhika Samaraweera The 11 parties which unveiled its own manifesto recently, despite being the coalition partners of the incumbent Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led Government, have claimed that they would soon collectively take away the parliamentary majority enjoyed by the Government. This warning was issued by the representatives of 11 parties including the National Freedom Front (NFF), the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which are part of the coalition government ruling alliance led by the SLPP, when they met the mahanayakes (chief prelates) of the Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters of the Siam Sect yesterday (24), where the chief prelates were briefed on the future plans of the 11 said parties. “Our 11 parties have 30 members of Parliament. When those 30 are removed, the Government will be left with only 124 seats. As soon as another 12 MPs quit the Government, it will lose its parliamentary majority. Because of the mad things this Government is doing, there are far more than 12 MPs who are extremely disappointed and disillusioned,” PHU Leader and SLPP Government MP Udaya Gammanpila told the mahanayakes during the meeting. National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader and SLPP Government Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa, during the meeting and speaking to the media afterwards, stated that it would not be difficult to take away the parliamentary majority of the Government. “An all-party conference was convened for all parties to work together in unity, but Basil Rajapaksa has shown that he is arrogant so much so that he called a former Prime Minister (a reference to incumbent United National Party [UNP] Opposition MP Ranil Wickremesinghe) ‘you’. He wants to create a conflict there as well. This country cannot move forward with such an arrogant, ‘ugly American’. We will soon end this Government’s majority of 113 seats and thereby put an end to this arrogant regime,” he claimed. Following a question raised by Wickremesinghe regarding a report prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the country’s economy during the said all-party conference, a heated debate erupted between Wickremesinghe and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, where the latter asked the former: “Do you need the draft of the report?” Journalists queried Weerawansa as to whether he and other representatives of the said political parties were criticising the Finance Minister with the intention of bringing Youth and Sports, and Development Co-ordination and Monitoring Minister and Digital Technology and Enterprise Development State Minister Namal Rajapaksa to power in a future election. “We have no intention of campaigning to bring any Rajapaksa to power in future. If someone says that we are fulfilling such a contract, it is because they are afraid of our programme. We are engaged in politics without thinking about positions, because we love the country. This country cannot be allowed to become a colony of another country. Also, the country’s resources cannot be given to foreigners. That is why we are taking this action,” he replied. Following the said 11 parties of the Coalition Government having unveiled the “Mulu Ratama Hari Magata (the entire country on to the correct path)” document – a set of proposals to overcome the current economic crisis in the country – on 2 March, Weerawansa was removed from the post of Industries Minister. In addition, Gammanpila, who attended the launch of the said proposals, was also removed from the post of Energy Minister.


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