BY Kaushi Sendanayake, Ravi Ladduwahetty and W.K. Prasad Manju Courtesy Ceylon Today

Joint Opposition (JO) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party Kandy District Parliamentarian Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that the No Confidence motion, drafted by the JO, against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for his alleged involvement in the Central Bank Bonds scam, will be handed over to the Speaker during the special session of Parliament set to convene today (10) morning.

The MP said that the JO had compiled the motion against the Premier, having gained input from several prominent lawyers in the country and expressed confidence of winning the motion against Wickremesinghe, who he described as one of the biggest culprits behind the Bonds scandal.

Aluthgamage added that the no confidence motion will be submitted to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya after all of the JO MPs had signed it this morning.

He noted that all MPs of the legislature will have the opportunity to sign the motion against the Prime Minister which he said will ultimately force the President to remove him from office for the hefty sum that had robbed from the State.

Aluthgamage stressed that the MPs from the United National Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the Tamil National Alliance and other small parties will also have an opportunity to cast their vote in support of the No Confidence Motion brought against the Premier. He warned that if any MP attempts to defeat the motion brought against the Premier, he or she will be exposed before the nation as those who had colluded with the Prime Minister to rob the Central Bank.

Meanwhile, Minister of Higher Education and Highways and Leader of the House, Lakshman Kiriella said that the decision taken by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to permit a debate in Parliament on the Central Bank Bond scam shows the transparency existing within the Government.

Kiriella added that Premier Wickremesinghe and the United National Party were ready to engage in any kind of debate and would not under any circumstance run away from the debate relating to the Central Bank Bond scam, unlike the previous regime of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Meanwhile, Colombo District United People’s Freedom Alliance and JO MP Bandula Gunawardena, speaking at a press conference yesterday (9), mentioned that the JO Leader in Parliament, Dinesh Gunawardena, had requested President Maithripala Sirisena, via an official letter, to release the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the issuance of Treasury Bonds immediately, according to which contents the No Confidence Motion would be drafted.

Expressing his views at the same press conference held in Colombo, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Professor G.L. Peiris said that the Prime Minister should at least resign temporarily from office. He added that the report’s recommendations would not be implemented while he remained in office. He alleged that the Prime Minister is to be blamed for the scandal. He pointed out to the evidence given by the former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran before the Commission that he had clearly received orders from the Premier to change the system in place at the Central Bank, which subsequently led to the whole scam.