President pressed to find suitable PM Political crisis continues
By Gagani Weerakoon-2018-02-18The political crisis surrounding the Government stretched into its sixth day, yesterday, after the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna's sweep of the Local Government elections upended the country's governance on 10 February. As of last night, the Government was deadlocked with President Maithripala Sirisena looking for a replacement for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe while the latter was determined to continue in office.
As the crisis continues to deepen, it is posing a severe threat to the political and economic stability of the country. Currently, the two constituent parties in the Unity Government are both trying to find 113 Members of Parliament to support them to form their own Government. If an Opposition Group can cobble this number together, they can force Wickremesinghe to quit. If the PM can find the number he can stay.
Multiple political sources, who spoke to Ceylon Today, said that the issue will be settled latest by Tuesday.
In the past few days, three scenarios have emerged.
The first is for Wickremesinghe to garner another seven to eight MPs from other parties to reach the magic number of 113 and continue the Unity Government under his Premiership. The second is for Wickremesinghe to step down as Prime Minister and be replaced by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and form a Unity Government with the Tamil National Alliance led by Rajavirotham Sampanthan.
In that case the TNA, Ceylon Today reliably learns, will be accepting several Ministerial portfolios. The third is for the SLFP/UPFA alliance to form a Government under the leadership of Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva with backing from the Joint Opposition of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In that case, the JO will be recognised as the Official Opposition and an MP from that group – most probably Chamal Rajapaksa – will be made Speaker. The UNP and the UPFA were having discussions with various parties to get the majority in Parliament even by last evening.
Article 42(4) of the 19th Amendment states that the President shall appoint as Prime Minister the Member of Parliament, who, in the President's opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament .The President may also appoint a Deputy Prime Minister on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The UPFA, which has now received the support of the Joint Opposition, are to inform the Speaker that they have the majority (113 seats) in Parliament by tomorrow (19) or by Tuesday. Meanwhile, two groups of the UNP were attempting to strike a deal with President Sirisena last evening. President Sirisena was in Polonnaruwa yesterday attending the funeral of a close friend and will return to Colombo today.
The group of UNP deputy and State ministers, who are on a truce mission between the President and the UNP leadership, were hopeful that the Unity Government would continue with Wickremesinghe as PM. They however, said the powers of UNP Ministers will be reduced. "We asked the President to take over several ministries and keep them under his purview," they said.
At the same time, another group of UNPers were attempting to get the consent of Speaker Jayasuriya to be the Prime Minister and continue the Unity Government. However, Jayasuriya earlier declined the offer saying he would not do anything without the party's consent. The legal fraternity is also divided, as one party argues that the Prime Minister will have no choice but to step down if President demands the resignation of Cabinet of Ministers, as he has the power to appoint ministers.
Meanwhile, the other party argues that President has no power to oust the Prime Minister as per the provisions of the 19th Amendment, with the exception of him resigning or Parliament approving a no faith motion against him.
