After disputably holding on to the post of Prime Minister for weeks, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said he had “resigned”, and vowed to clinch power in the next election.
Backing down after the Supreme Court declined relief to an appeal court order restraining him from acting as PM, Mr. Rajapaksa said he accepted the post as he could not turn down a request to form “interim government” until snap elections.
“The Supreme Court has delivered a judgment against the holding of the general election that had already been declared,” he said referring to the apex court’s landmark judgment on Thursday, which declared Mr. Sirisena’s sacking of Parliament and call for early elections illegal.
Claiming that he had “no intention” of remaining as PM without an impending general election, Mr. Rajapaksa said he would “make way” for a new government.
On Sunday, President Maithripala Sirisena will re-install Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, 50 days after he sacked him and appointed Mr. Rajapaksa instead. Following the widely criticised October 26 move, Mr. Rajapaksa was quick to occupy the office of the PM, hold Cabinet meetings and announce key policy decisions. But in the seven weeks since, his MPs — who either disrupted or boycotted parliament sittings — did not prove majority in the House even once.
Mr. Rajapaksa, who earlier reached out to the island’s Tamil leadership asking for support in Parliament, on Saturday attacked his rival party for doing that.
On October 30, with a little over 100 MPs backing him in the 225-strong legislature, Mr. Rajapaksa had met Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan and sought his party’s support, while promising to address the pending Tamil question. At that time, Mr. Sampanthan had reportedly asked for a “a specific plan, time frame and the manner of implementation” before he considered the request.
Critical support
In the seven floor tests that followed, including two no-confidence motions that Mr. Rajapaksa lost, the TNA's 14 MPs, along with Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s six legislators, had the decisive vote, since Mr. Wickremesinghe’s front was 10 MPs short of a simple majority. The TNA backed all motions against Mr. Rajapaksa.
On the basis of its stance that Mr. Rajapaksa’s appointment was unconstitutional and illegal, the TNA backed all motions against Mr. Rajapaksa and his purported government.
However, speaking to supporters at his home on Saturday, the former President alleged that Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) had been “taken hostage” by the TNA. “If they [UNP] do not adhere to the diktat of the TNA, the UNP minority can lose their parliamentary majority at any moment. The TNA now holds the remote control in Parliament.”
Accusing all political parties opposed to him of engaging in “various subterfuges” to avoid facing elections, Mr. Rajapaksa said: “But the people will definitely get the change they desire. No one can prevent that.”
