{"id":58443,"date":"2018-03-19T00:35:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T05:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58443"},"modified":"2018-03-19T01:37:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T06:37:00","slug":"ex-president-mahinda-rajapaksa-says-he-will-move-a-no-confidence-motion-against-prime-minister-ranil-wickremesinghe-and-topple-govt-headed-by-president-sirisena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=58443","title":{"rendered":"Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa Says He Will Move a No Confidence Motion Against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Topple the Current Govt Headed By President Sirisena."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he would move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe next week, and claimed he had the support of some legislators in the PM\u2019s United National Party (UNP).<\/p>\n

Declaring that he was close to bringing the government down, Mr. Rajapaksa said: \u201cThe UNP\u2019s own members are doing that, I don\u2019t have to do [much].\u201d He was speaking to Colombo-based foreign correspondents at his residence on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In late 2016, about two years after his election defeat, the former President had vowed to topple the successor government. The country\u2019s first national unity government helmed by President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe remained stable through 2017 despite tensions. <\/p>\n

However, the outcome of the local government elections held in February 2018 pushed the government to a virtual split.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A new party backed by Mr. Rajapaksa outdid both the UNP and Mr. Sirisena\u2019s faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) \u2014 the other faction supports Mr. Rajapaksa in Parliament as an opposition block \u2014 and secured a majority of local authorities in the island. The partners in the ruling alliance blamed each other for the poor show. While the post-poll split was averted with a compromise between the partners over a cabinet reshuffle, the coalition is fragile.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are with Sirisena\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked if he is open to working with President Sirisena, Mr. Rajapaksa said: \u201cIf he wants to nominate an SLFP member for PM we will support the candidate… We are with him [Sirisena] at the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n

On whether the government had gone soft on cases involving the former first family, Mr. Rajapaksa said: \u201cWhy, they have taken action\u201d, pointing to pending corruption cases against his brother and former Minister Basil Rajapaksa and his sons Namal and Yoshitha. Former foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, who was seated by Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s side, said: \u201cNo court has found anyone guilty \u2014 all these people spent weeks and months in jail.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking on the recent anti-Muslim violence in Kandy, Mr. Rajapaksa said while some in the government and sections of international media \u201cwere trying to implicate us\u2026, we have nothing to do with it.\u201d
\nViolence against Muslims has been on the rise in Sri Lanka since 2012. Critics have accused the Rajapaksa administration of protecting the suspects, including a Buddhist monk seen instigating violence. The former President has in the past denied the charges.<\/p>\n


\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he would move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe next week, and claimed he had the support of some legislators in the PM\u2019s United National Party (UNP). Declaring that he was close to bringing the government down, Mr. Rajapaksa said: \u201cThe UNP\u2019s own …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa Says He Will Move a No Confidence Motion Against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Topple the Current Govt Headed By President Sirisena.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58445,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58443\/revisions\/58445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}