The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday said it would hand over a No Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Prime Minister to the Speaker, when Parliament
meets this week, even as the UNP said it was confident of defeating the move. The JO is collecting signatures and over 35 Parliamentarians in the JO have already signed the NCM.
The other political parties are collecting signatures separately for the NCM.
“We hope that we would be able to complete this exercise by Tuesday evening (March 20), JO front liner and UPFA Ratnapura District MP Ranjith de Zoysa told the Sunday Observer yesterday. However, senior UNP sources said they were confident that the JO did not have the numbers necessary (113), to effect the removal of Premier Wickremesinghe through the no faith motion. Only large scale defections from the UNP would carry the motion, since the UPFA simply could not muster the votes with their 96 seats, the sources added.
Asked why former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has not signed the no confidence motion, MP Zoysa said only 20 signatures were necessary to hand over a NCM to the Speaker. The former President and even some UNP MPs would also vote in favour of the NCM at the time of voting, Zoysa claimed.
Meanwhile, UNP Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Nalin Bandara Jayamaha said the UNP had no problem in facing the challenge of a no faith motion against the Prime Minister. He said that although the JO had every right to bring in a no confidence motion, the fact is that this motion would also face the same fate as those previous moves to oust Wickremesinghe.
The JO no faith motion contains 14 main charges against the Premier, Zoysa said, including the Treasury Bond issue and the failure to prevent the recent unrest in Kandy.