Six Cabinet Ministers from President Maithripala Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) quit the national unity government on Wednesday, days after they voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament.
Late Wednesday, the senior Ministers submitted their resignation to President Sirisena, according to political sources. Ten other state and Deputy Ministers also left the government and all the 16 SLFP legislators — who backed the no-faith vote — will now sit in opposition in Parliament, but have said they will continue working under the leadership of Mr. Sirisena.
MPs urge party to leave government
The MPs have also urged their party to leave the national unity government. Other SLFP legislators abstained from the vote.
The no-confidence vote on April 4, mooted by supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, exposed the deep fissures within the national unity government that Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) and a part of the SLFP cohabit.
Mr. Wickremesinghe comfortably defeated the motion with his own party and minority parties backing him, and later said the unity government would continue. The central committee of the SLFP met earlier this week but the discussion — said to have lasted four-and-a-half hours — was inconclusive and there is no official word yet on the party’s position.
Cabinet reshuffle agreed upon
Mr. Sirisena and the PM agreed on a cabinet reshuffle, but meanwhile the dissident SLFP legislators decided to relinquish their ministerial positions in government, leading to a complex scenario where factions of a further divided SLFP is both in government and opposition, both working under Mr. Sirisena. Another faction that earlier broke away from the party backs Mr. Rajapaksa in an informal alliance calling itself the ‘Joint Opposition’.
However, the Ministers who resigned on Wednesday have clarified that they would not join the pro-Rajapaksa forces.
“We are certain that our party’s central committee, which will meet after April 22, will decide to leave the government. We will also ask our other colleagues who earlier joined other groups to come back to the SLFP and become a strong source of opposition,” said Dilan Perera, who resigned from the position of the State Minister of Highways.
