Colombo: Embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led government won two important victories in Parliament when its candidate for the slot of Deputy Speaker got elected while it convincingly defeated an Opposition move to hasten a debate on a censure motion that blamed him for the island nation’s worst economic crisis.
A no-confidence motion tabled by the Opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M A Sumanthiran to censure President Rajapaksa was defeated 119-68 in a deeply-divided Parliament, amidst nationwide protests demanding his resignation due to the hardship faced by the people.
With the no-confidence motion, the Opposition sought to demonstrate how nationwide calls for President Rajapaksa’s resignation is reflected in the country’s 225-member legislature.
Hours earlier, the candidate from the ruling SLPP won a key vote when its lawmaker Ajith Rajapaksha was on Tuesday elected Deputy Speaker of the country’s Parliament, which met for the first time since the resignation of the former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the swearing-in of the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Rajapaksha, from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP) was elected following a secret ballot conducted in Parliament.
He secured 109 votes and the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya nominee Rohini Kavirathna received 78 votes.
Rajapaksha is not related to the ruling Rajapaksa family but comes from the same home district of Hambantota.
House Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said 23 votes were rejected.
The post of deputy speaker was left vacant after Ranjith Siyamabalapitiya resigned from the post twice in one month this year.
The House met for the first time on Tuesday since the resignation of the former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the cycle of violence in which nine people, including a parliamentarian, were killed and over 200 others injured.
Both Mahinda Rajapaksa and his son Namal Rajapaksa were absent while Basil Rajapaksa and Shasheendra Rajapaksa the other members of the Rajapaksa family were present in Parliament.
Meanwhile, TNA leader Sumanthiran, who tabled the no-confidence motion against the President for mismanaging the island nation’s economy, slammed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe for his shameful conduct in supporting the government to defeat a motion moved by the Opposition.
