Four Ministers belonging to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Thursday resigned from the government.
The Ministers — Mahinda Yapa Abewardene, Cabinet Minister in charge of Parliamentary Affairs; Dilan Perera, State Minister for Housing and Samrudhi and SLFP spokesperson; C.B. Ratanayake, State Minister for Public Administration and Democratic Rule and Pavitradevi Wanniarachchi, Minister of Environment —announced their decision at a press conference here.
Pointing out that three reasons were behind their move, Mr. Perera referred to the decision to allow the term of 234 local bodies to get lapsed on May 15 and hand over the administration to special commissioners; “ridiculous criticism” of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe against the Supreme Court’s ruling of staying the arrest of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and adjourning the case till October 6, and “partiality” shown to SLFP Members of Parliament in the release of money under the MPs’ constituency development fund.
Mr. Perera replied in the negative when asked whether they would take back their resignation in the event of President Maithripala Sirisena’s intervention.
He expressed the hope that Mr. Sirisena and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa would come together and face the electorate during the coming Parliamentary polls.
