Sri Lankan Parliament passes motion to cut Prime Minister’s budget
The motion adds some drama to the on-going crisis at SL and puts a stop at PM from using Government money for his day-to-day expenses
Columbo: Sri Lanka’s parliament agreed today to cut budget of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakasa. It is considered a way to hinder the Prime Minister. His supporters had boycotted the vote amid a week-long crisis, which does not seem to end very soon.
Rajapakasa has already lost two No Confidence motions. Hence the lawmakers consider his position illegitimate and say he should not be allowed to use government’s money for his daily expenditures.
“This will mean *that* the Prime Minister will be dysfunctional. We will bring a similar motion tomorrow (on Friday) to cut down the expenditures of other ministers”, said Ravi Karunanayake, the former Finance Minister. He had proposed Thursday’s motion. The motion passed 123 to none in the 225-member Parliament.
Thursday’s vote comes more than a month after President Maithripala Sirisena triggered crisis by throwing out the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe and replacing him with Rajapakasa; who was then in turn sacked by the Parliament.
Rajapaksa loyalists said Thursday’s vote is illegal because there is a pending court case over whether an attempt by Sirisena to dissolve parliament on November 9th is constitutional or not. The court is set to rule on that issue next week.
Ms Kalinga