Sri Lanka moves towards appointing a new Prime Minister

Sri Lanka's parliament, a day after Supreme Court overturned President's decision to dissolve the house, passed a motion of no-confidence against controversially appointed government of Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court overturned a presidential decree dissolving the legislature.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ruled that a majority of the 225-member assembly supported the motion against Rajapaksa who was made prime minister on October 26 after the President sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe.

While Wickremasinghe received breather following back to back decisions by Supreme Court and Parliament, the UNP faces an uphill task of growing opposition within his own party, his failure to boost economy and therefore anti incumbency factor.


The Parliament's decision does not automatically mean that Wickremesinghe, who had refused to leave the prime minister's residence, has won the constitutional showdown.

Though his party is the biggest in parliament, President Maithripala Sirisena, who had backed Rajapaksa, retains the power to choose the next prime minister. Sources indicated to ET that Jayasuriya could be best choice to be the next PM of Sri Lanka after Sirisenas effort to alter politics of the island nation did not yield result.

Amid chaotic scenes in Lankan Parliament, Rajapaksa, and his MP son Namal walked out of the speakers chamber just before the speaker called for a vote.

MPs loyal to Rajapaksa attempted to grab the mace, the symbol of authority of the legislature, to disrupt the vote, but Jayasuriya went ahead.

"The ayes have it," the Speaker announced over his public address system "I rule that this House does not have confidence in the government (of Rajapaksa)."

Several Rajapaksa ministers came out of parliament accusing the speaker of violating parliamentary norms by holding the crucial vote against their wishes.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to suspend the president's order until 7 December, after 13 political parties and individuals filed petitions with the court calling the dissolution unconstitutional. The Sri Lankan Supreme Court would hold the next hearing in December first week. The Supreme Court decision also halted process of Jan 5 Parliamentary polls.

Sirisena had dissolved Parliament realising that Rajapaksa though backed by China has failed to get majority to form government and tried to give him chance through proposed polls.