Speaker dares Govt. to move NCM against him

... asserts solution possible following Dec 7 SC ruling

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on the phone as MP Ravi Karunanayake looks on. MP Lakshman Kiriella is seated near Wickremesinghe.

by Shamindra Ferdinando-November 23, 2018, 11:18 pm 

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday challenged the government to bring in a no-confidence motion (NCM) against him if it believed he was not suitable to function as the Speaker.

Reiterating his commitment to upholding the stand taken by 122 lawmakers from four political parties that the incumbent administration wasn’t acceptable to them under any circumstances, Speaker Jayasuriya pointed out that he could be removed with a simple majority.

Speaker Jayasuriya said so at a party leaders’ meeting held before Parliament met at 10.30 am. Previous sittings were held last Monday (Nov 19).

Jayasuriya, who contested the Gampaha District at the last parliamentary polls in August 2015, told top government representatives that he would be really happy if the government at least could prove its majority in parliament by moving an NCM against him.

He said there wouldn’t be any point in causing turmoil both in and outside parliament. The Speaker was referring to week-long disturbances in parliament since the House reconvened on Nov. 14 after the Supreme Court temporarily suspended the dissolution of parliament pending ruling on the matter on Dec 07.

At the onset of the meeting, Speaker Jayasuriya requested representatives of political parties to conduct the proceedings in an orderly manner though they represented different views.

Referring to a meeting he had with President Maithripala Sirisena on Oct 27, Speaker told the gathering that he strongly believed the government should show its majority in parliament and it would be the responsibility of the new administration to do so.

The Speaker said that the government would get another opportunity to prove its majority in parliament next Thursday (Nov 29).

A spokesperson for the Speaker’s Office said that the party leaders had not been able to reach a consensus on the appointment of a 12-member House Selection Committee (HSC).

In the absence of a consensus, Speaker Jayasuriya declared that he would make appointments in terms of the Standing Orders 136/143. Accordingly, he allocated seven slots to the group comprising 122 MPs whereas the UPFA received five slots.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Speaker said that he believed a solution could be found after the Dec 7 SC ruling.

Of the seven slots allocated to the UNP-led Opposition, the Speaker assigned a position each to the UNP (Lakshman Kiriella), the SLMC (Rauff Hakeem), the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (Rishad Bathiudeen), the Democratic People’s Front (Mano Ganesan), the Jathika Hela Urumaya (Patali Champika Ranawaka), the Tamil National Alliance (Mavai Senathirajah) and the JVP (Vijitha Herath).

Speaker Jayasuriya accepted five out of seven names proposed by the government leaving out Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (Udaya Gammanpila) and the UPFA (Tilanga Sumathipala). The following members were accommodated: Dinesh Gunawardena, Wimal Weerawansa, S. B. Dissanayake, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Samarasinghe.

The HSC is tasked with naming members to all other parliamentary committees.

Political sources told The Island that the UNP and its allies would continue on the basis the parliamentary group opposed to the Sirisena-Rajapaksa government comprised 122 lawmakers. Sources said that the TNA, JVP, ACMC and the DPF had remained solidly with the UNP.

Of the UNP’s partners, only the TNA suffered a defection when one of its MPs crossed over  to the government.