Alliance .... shattered! Fight for Minister posts Swearing-in of Ministers ... postponed till Tuesday

Alliance .... shattered!

 Fight for Minister posts

 Swearing-in of Ministers ... postponed till Tuesday

The political field of the past weekend has has been heated up with a tussel for Ministerships and a complex situation of the UPFA after Ranil Wickremasingha took his oaths as the Prime Minister and the UNP - SLFP signed an agreement. 

The matter that has come up right at the start here is the difficult task of allotting positions of Minister portfolios. The main block in this instance happens to be when the difficulty of fulfilling the requirements of those who were accommodated for posts of Minister from the UNP being posted in the same position as before within the 100 day programme, to their heart's content with members also being in two Parties. As such, the new group of Ministers who were expected to be sworn in on Monday would take their oaths on Tuesday (24) instead, political sources say. It was reported that initially about 40 would take their oaths and that 10 State Ministers and 30 Deputy Ministers are to be appointed. They would thus total 80. Whatever it is, according to the 19th Amendment the total of Ministers and Deputy Ministers cannot exceed the limit of 100. If it was a single Party government, the rule laid down in the 19th Amendment is that 30 Ministers in such a case and if it is a National Government the number of Cabinet Ministers should be 45 and the number of Ministers not belonging to the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers totalling 55 should be appointed. As such, as a second step, the number of Cabinet Ministers being increased upto 45 and Ministers not belonging to the Cabinet and the number of Deputy Ministers rising as far as 55 could be increased in time to come, may be considered. Whatever it is, such a a decision could be taken only with the consent of the parliament. However, there is a strong probability that the number of Ministers could go up as many as 100 by now in the background where the two main Parties are united. 

The President had arranged for a decisive discussion with all MPs who had been chosen for the parliament from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party this evening (23) at about 5. After this discussion President Maithripala Sirisena as the Chairman of the Party is very likely to arrive at a final decision about those who show any opposition against the National Government, it is reported. The former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa had seriously criticised the move taken about the group he is representing joining with the the UNP combining with the National Government and people such as Kumara Welgama, S.M. Chandrasena, T.B. Ekanayaka, Pavithra Wanniaarachchi and others who opposed that suggestion at the SLFP Central Executive Meeting of the SLFP some days back have been expelled from the SLFP as well as the Alliance. By now the idea of the group represented by Mahinda Rajapaksa of the SLFP is to bring in Dinesh Goonewardena, Wimal Weeravansha, Udaya Gammanpila, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and others who are around Mahinda Rajapaksa and the group breaking away from the SLFP and subsequently forming an independent group and in this manner carry out their duties in parliament. Whatever it is, the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown his displeasure against this proposition; but the action he would take in this connection is not clear. Former President's son and those who obtained positions of Members of Parliament when the former President was in the Opposition taking up the power of ruling through his charisma is indeed a sarcastic matter. 

As the UNP entered into an agreement with the SLFP only, opinions are scattered around that the United People's Freedom Alliance together with minority Parties is to be dissolved in a few days' time. However, what the leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, Udaya Gammanpila says is that dissolving the United People's Freedom Alliance cannot be dissolved in a practical sense. Gammanpila had further said that as there are many district members and MPs selected after contesting under the Alliance ticket, the Secretary of the Alliance would be taking measures to communicate nominally with Elections Commissioner and that they would not be contesting at elections in future under the Alliance.  

Piyasiri Wijeynaika of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna has mentioned at a media conference held at Abhayarama today (23) that former Secretary of the United People's Freedom Alliance, Susil Premajayantha had had been responsible in committing the most dreadful act of traitorship in history in cutting off names of the group from the National List named initially and instead naming the losers and then forward it to the Elections Commissioner. He and Somaweera Chandrasiri had been to Nawagamuwa yesterday and had engaged in the ritual of dashing coconuts in this connection and what they said today was that legal action would be taken against Susil Premajayantha over this matter. In the meantime what Susil announced over the media yesterday was that he is unable to do anything and that he was compelled to carry out what was said in the background at a time the position of Secretary of the Party had been legally in the hands of another.