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His faction has refused to accept the vote against him
Mahinda Rajapaksa will address Parliament on Thursday, a day after a majority of legislators in the House voted him out. “It will be on the current political situation,” his son and Hambantota parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa told The Hindu . Following a floor test on Wednesday, the Speaker declared that the “newly appointed” government of Mr. Rajapaksa did not have a majority in the House. However, lawmakers aligned to the leader have refused to acknowledge the development, despite 122 MPs voting in favour of a no-confidence motion against him.
‘Breach of convention’
Dayasiri Jayasekara — a prominent lawmaker from the Maithripala Sirisena-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that recently joined forces with Mr. Rajapaksa — said President Sirisena did not accept the vote as being legitimate, as it was taken up “breaching parliamentary convention”. He claimed that MPs on their side were unaware of the contents of the motion until the last minute. “Moreover, we don’t agree with the first part of the motion that alleges that the President’s earlier gazettes — appointing a new PM and then proroguing Parliament — are illegal and unconstitutional. How can they say that, without going to court on those specific matters?” he asked. On the second paragraph of the motion, which spoke of not having faith in the purported PM [Mr. Rajapaksa], “that part was okay”, said Mr. Jayasekara. Countering the claim that parliamentary process was not respected, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna MP Vijitha Herath said due process was followed in the House. “It is true that there are set procedures to table a motion if standing orders are followed. Today, we moved the motion after the standing orders were suspended through a majority vote. Such a situation allows us to move a motion, which again a majority of us wanted taken up,” he told The Hindu . The optics of Thursday’s sitting, scheduled to commence at 10 a.m., will be significant. Even after Mr. Rajapaksa’s disputed government was voted out of legislature, its members held a Cabinet press briefing, announcing policy decisions.
