Courtesy Ceylon Today

United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Dinesh Gunawardena today (14), said the UPFA does not accept the No-Confidence Motion of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), against newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the newly appointed Cabinet as a valid one, because no Motion was moved when the Parliament sitting was in progress.

Addressing a media briefing in Parliament, shortly after the adjournment of the Parliamentary sitting, Gunawardena said that as per the Order Paper of the day, there were only two items.

Those items are the announcement of the proclamation of the President summoning Parliament and the adjournment of the House. As the Leader of the House, I adjourned Parliament. Whatever happened after that cannot be taken as official,” Gunawardena said.

He also argued that when the no faith motion was moved, the mace was not in the bracket. The Sergeant-at-Arms removed it after I adjourned the House. Everyone knows that the mace is the symbol of authority in Parliament. It is only after the mace is brought to the House and placed in the bracket that the Speaker can come to his seat and commence the sitting. Once the mace is removed, the sitting is over officially. Whatever happened inside the chamber thereafter is not considered official. The so-called motion was nothing but an illegal move by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya,” he claimed.

Gunawardena claimed that the Speaker had exposed his alliances. It is very unfortunate and sad that Speaker Jayasuriya behaved in that manner. It is such a low and shameless act,” he said and added, The Government having a majority or minority in Parliament is not the question here. There have been many minority Governments in our Parliamentary history, but Speakers never behaved like this. For example, in 1960, there was Dudley Senanayake’s minority Government, which could have been overturned by others with the help of the Speaker. But the then Speaker upheld his unbiased impartiality, but today we have to witness the undoing of all such norms by the holder of the Speaker’s Office.”

Speaker Jayasuriya first recognized newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Cabinet. He also prepared to arrange seats for them. Suddenly, he changed and started to behave in this strange manner. He began to use Parliamentary traditions and Standing Orders to help the Party he was elected to Parliament from. Now, it is clear that the Speaker’s intention was to lead Parliament to chaos, and the country to anarchy.”

MP and purported Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva claimed that those who stated that the new Government was not official or was illegal, would not be able to say so going forward, as Parliament accepted the ouster of the Prime Minister, and appointment of a new one. Those documents have been tabled and that means this Parliament recognizes those two moves. Nobody can say that the appointments made by the President are illegal,” de Silva said.

Leaders of the parties in Government ranks were present at the media conference.