{"id":75894,"date":"2018-03-23T13:30:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T20:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=75894"},"modified":"2018-03-23T13:30:44","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T20:30:44","slug":"joint-opposition-tipped-to-call-for-a-secret-vote-on-no-faith-motion-slfp-ministers-except-a-handful-confident-of-ousting-the-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/03\/23\/joint-opposition-tipped-to-call-for-a-secret-vote-on-no-faith-motion-slfp-ministers-except-a-handful-confident-of-ousting-the-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint opposition tipped to call for a secret vote on no-faith motion SLFP ministers, except a handful, confident of ousting the PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena received a warm welcome extended by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in the land of the rising sun at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Later, the two Leaders held bilateral talks following which they toured the Imperial Palace, taking in the sights.<\/p>\n

Though the season of Cherry blossoms has begun as the spring has started, President Sirisena like many other heartbroken tourists did not get a chance to witness the beauty as the full bloom of Cherry blossoms will happen around April in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

However, the Emperor and Empress did not disappoint their guest as they escorted President Sirisena and First Lady Jayanthi Sirisena to the garden of the palace and showed a tree full of red cherry-blossoms.<\/p>\n

It is from Thailand. Hence the red colour blossoms,\u201d Emperor Akihito offered an explanation.<\/p>\n

State of Emergency
\nMeanwhile, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are expected to sit together and decide whether they should seek Parliament\u2019s approval to extend the State of Emergency for another period with security forces alleged to have demanded to do so.<\/p>\n

Following requests made to the Government, by the security and intelligence network of the country, to refrain from lifting the State of Emergency until the conclusion of investigations into the recent communal clashes in the Kandy District, the Prime Minister on Thursday informed the security heads that he would convey their request to the President once he returned to the island after his tour of Japan.<\/p>\n

This request had been made by the security network to Premier Wickremesinghe during the Security Council meeting.<\/p>\n

The security heads had informed him that already 70 per cent of the inquiries into the incidents had been completed.<\/p>\n

However, the State of Emergency promulgated by the President just before leaving the country to undertake an official visit to New Delhi and then to Japan will automatically lapse unless extended with the approval of Parliament on Tuesday (20).<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe stated that one of the key reasons for the defeat suffered by the Government, at the 10 February Local Government Polls, was its inability to prevent the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

The Premier was speaking at the Damunupola temple in Kegalle on 15 March.
\nReferring to the recent unwarranted incidents that erupted in the Digana and Teldeniya areas in Kandy, he noted that when the trust among different ethnic and religious groups erodes systematically, then it automatically can have ripple effects on the smooth running of the Government as well.<\/p>\n

Now, we must strive to rectify the situation though it may not be easy to begin with. We must study the reasons behind the eruption of such clashes and attempt to prevent them from recurring. As Sinhalese Buddhists, we should all remember to work with people who follow other faiths. As a Sinhala Buddhist nation, we must remember that it is our duty to work with such people without attempting to discriminate against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere he added that there are still many shortcomings that could be seen at the village level throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Scores of youths and elders still seek better jobs and poverty is still prevalent. During the first two-year period, we had to grapple with many issues such as the paying of loans taken by the previous regime. But, the people did not have enough patience with it and we saw the result at the recent elections. There was also a fertilizer shortage. We failed to grasp the heartbeat of the people as a Government and this is a lesson that we must learn ahead of contesting future polls. We intend to bring down many investors to the country after the Sinhala-Tamil New Year and during that time we also intend to provide essential items at concessionary rates. Subsequently, we hope to develop the hotels, ports and airports. Hence by 2020, I am confident the people will be able to reap the benefits of these development projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

No- faith in PM
\nWith the Joint Opposition all set to hand over their much awaited No-confidence Motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Government to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, on Tuesday (20), at least 36 Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Parliamentarians including ministers, have signed another letter to be handed over to the President simultaneously.<\/p>\n

A top SLFP Cabinet Minister told Ceylon Today that they are planning to hand over the letter to President Maithripala Sirisena early in the week.<\/p>\n

We are enthusiastically engaged in gathering signatures for this letter, in which we have mentioned that we have no confidence in or desire to work with the incumbent Prime Minister due to a number of reasons. Therefore, we will inform President Sirisena, in writing, that we will be compelled to vote in favour of the No-confidence Motion, submitted by the Joint Opposition, in Parliament,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Joint Opposition will take a final decision on handing over the draft No-confidence Motion to the Speaker, following its Parliamentary Group Meeting chaired by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

We have already gathered more than the required number of signatures and only 20 signatures are needed for the motion to be accepted by the Speaker. Several SLFP and UNP Parliamentarians have also expressed their support to us. However, the final decision on when to hand over the motion and the type of the division we are going to call for, will be taken at the group meeting,\u201d a JO Parliamentarian said, while indicating that the Joint Opposition will most probably call for a secret ballot on the No-confidence Motion thus, enabling UNP Parliamentarians to cast their vote independently.<\/p>\n

The United National Party (UNP) group, that is seeking party reforms, including a change in Party\u2019s leadership, said they will only take a decision on the No-confidence Motion once it is presented in Parliament.<\/p>\n

It is still premature to take a decision on the matter, as the motion has not been submitted to the Speaker as yet. We will have to look at the points in the motion and then decide whether they are reasonable or not, before taking a final decision on voting in favour or against,\u201d a State Minister in the group said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) appear to be in a fix with not being able to support something spearheaded by the Rajapaksa-led group but not being able to say no to something that would speak about the Treasury bond scam.<\/p>\n

Hence, they seem to have adopted a defensive line by stating they will take a final decision on the matter after studying the content of the No-confidence Motion. It is likely that the JVP will abstain from voting unless a secret vote was called.
\nThe Tamil National Alliance also said to have not reached a consensus on the matter with the party being divided into two camps-one in favour of the motion and the other against.<\/p>\n

Counter plan
\nMeanwhile, in what appears like an attempt to garner the support of the UNP Parliamentarians and to douse heating opposition against its leader, Minister Sagala Ratnayaka on Friday evening announced the new office bearers of the party will be appointed before 31 March 2018.<\/p>\n

According to party sources, Party General Secretary Minister Kabir Hashim will most probably get replaced while an interim leader will be appointed for a certain period.<\/p>\n

However, sources also claimed there are plans to propose an amendment to the Constitution to repeal Executive Presidency. The proposal most probably would be forwarded by the JVP who strongly believe that there should not be another presidential election in the country. The JVP politburo as well as the UNP group has discussed the matter as President Sirisena in his 2015 Presidential Election campaign had pledged to abolish the Executive Presidency.<\/p>\n

MR to back Maithri
\nFormer President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who met Colombo based-foreign journalists and the members of the Foreign Correspondents Association at his official residence at Wijerama Mawatha Colombo 7 has said that they (Joint Opposition\/Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) have no problem in wholeheartedly supporting President Sirisena in the event, the latter sets up an SLFP Prime Minister-led government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Ceylon Today President Maithripala Sirisena received a warm welcome extended by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in the land of the rising sun at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Later, the two Leaders held bilateral talks following which they toured the Imperial Palace, taking in the sights. Though the season of Cherry blossoms has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}