Sri Lanka parliament to witness a floor test on November 5

The Sri Lankan president has decided to revoke his decision to suspend the proceedings of the parliament till November 12 and expressed its willing to organise a parliament session as early as November 5. The proposed parliament session will be a crucial one, as the newly appointed Prime Minister will have to prove his majority in the parliament in the session- the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena recently dismissed the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the PM.

As far as what is known at this moment, the Sir Lankan’s newly appointed PM has only less than 100 supporters in the 225 member parliament. On the other hand, his prime opponent has almost equal amount of supporters in the parliament.

If the things move like this, the political parties of Sri Lankan Tamil minorities such as the Tamil National Alliance will play a crucial role in the floor test. There are rumours that the new PM has approached the Tamil leaders for their support.

Mr Rajapaksa was the PM when the Sri Lankan army concluded the decades old civil war with the LTTE. There are allegations that several human right violations were committed during the last days of the brutal civil war by both sides.

Originally, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance was formed to stop the triumph of Mr Rajapaksa, whom many people criticise for the brutalities committed during the war by the Sri Lankan military. Though not materialised, the alliance assured the formation of an investigative committee to probe the war crimes.

Can the new Sri Lankan PM win the floor test?         

Vignesh. S. G

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