Impeachment, no-faith motions moved against SL Govt

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s main Opposition has submitted an impeachment motion to oust beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and a no-confidence motion against the government led by his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya or United People’s Force handed over two motions to the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena who is to announce their future cause in Parliament.

No-faith motion is needed a majority vote out of 225 MPs while the impeachment of the President is a tougher battle 2/3 majority in Parliament followed by the Supreme Court approval is required.

The Opposition charged that the Prime Minister and the ministers had failed in their collective responsibility to update the Parliament on the financial situation. Making multiple charges, the opposition accused the government has failed to provide basic facilities like food, clothing, and housing to its people and made Sri Lanka a country that has the lowest economic development in South Asia.

“The citizens were subjected to an unbearable inflation by printing over Lkr 3 trillion and the government had never updated the Parliament on this,” the Opposition stated.

The Opposition also accused the government for its arbitrary decision to ban chemical fertilizer and placing the country’s food security in jeopardy, destroying the economy by failing to provide fuel and cooking gas and by importing substandard gas, and killing eight people due to gas explosions.

In its impeachment motion, the Opposition charged that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa misused his powers on April 1 by imposing a state of emergency and ban on social media to prevent protests against him. The Opposition accused the Rajapaksa government of killing a protestor during a public protest demanding fuel.

The island nation is going through its worst economic crisis with no essential food, fuel, cooking gas, and medicine available in stocks and long hours of daily power cuts due to lack of fuel for power generation. For more than a month, people have been protesting on the streets and Sri Lankans around the world demanding that President Gotabaya and the government be resigned.

Image courtesy of (Photo courtesy: indianexpress.com)

Share this post