Chaotic Sri Lankan Parliament rejects president’s chosen PM
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Parliament passed a no-confidence vote against the government headed by the hastily sworn-in and bitterly disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, as lawmakers convened Wednesday for the first time since the president dismissed his Cabinet and suspended the legislature last month.
The motion brought by the head of an opposition party could mean that Rajapaksa will have to resign his post but does not necessarily mean the leader whose ousting set off the crisis will be reinstated, creating a power vacuum in the South Asian island nation.
“Rajapaksa’s government will fall,” said Paikiasothy Sarvanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based nonpartisan Centre for Policy Alternatives civil society group, and among the petitioners who challenged the constitutionality of President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent actions.
Sarvanamuttu said the no-confidence vote leaves Sirisena with two options — either to reinstate Ranil Wickremesinghe, whom he replaced with Rajapaksa on Oct. 26, as prime minister, or await the decision of the Supreme Court, which is due to issue a ruling on the ouster and subsequent government appointments on Dec. 7.