16 SLFPers to quit unity Govt. from midnight

11 April 2018 10:09 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 45 Bookmark

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The sixteen SLFP ministers who voted for the no-confidence motion against the prime minister decided to resign from their posts tonight and sit in the opposition when Parliament meets after the New Year celebrations.

Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Daily Mirror that President Maithripala Sirisena had accepted their letters of resignation.

He said these 16 members would function as an SLFP group in the opposition.

Asked whether they would team up with the joint opposition, he said that question would not arise at the moment. "We will work as a separate group in Parliament," he said.

Meanwhile, State Minister of Public Enterprise Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that it was not ethical for them to stay in the government anymore after voting against the Prime Minister. “As public representatives elected by the people, we feel that we should leave the unity government in which we hold ministerial portfolios,” the minister said.

SLFP Ministers Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, S. B. Dissanayake, Lakshman Wasantha Perera, Chandima Weerakodi, Dilan Perera, Susil Premajayantha, Sumedha G. Jayasena, Susantha Punchinilame, Thilanga Sumathipala, Sudarshani Fernandopulle, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, Dayasiri Jayasekera, W. D. J Seneviratne, Anuradha Jayaratne, T. B. Ekanayake and Tharanath Basnayake are the 16 who voted in favour of the no-confidence-motion. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)