Sajith summons meeting to discuss Speaker’s ‘partisan action’

By Saman Indrajith

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has said that a meeting of opposition parties will be convened this week to discuss a complaint that during Saturday’s Parliament debate on the government’s domestic debt restructuring plan, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene acted in a partisan manner without allocating adequate time for the Opposition MPs to take part in the debate.

The DDO plan was passed by Parliament on Saturday by a majority of 60 votes. The resolution received 122 votes in favour and 62 against.The resolution for the “implementation of the Domestic Debt Optimisation to restore sovereign debt sustainability” was passed after a 10-hour debate.

When the vote was announced to the House the Opposition MPs took to the Well of the House in protest, claiming that they had been denied time to express their views on the DDO plan.

Opposition Leader Premadasa said that five opposition MPs had been left out of the debate.The vote was scheduled at 7.30 pm and Parliament Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General had earlier announced that the debate would be given additional two hours but the Chair had decided to conduct the vote, Colombo District SJB MP SM Marikkar said.

The SLPP MPs in the Government voted for the resolution. They were joined by several MPs from the opposition. The main opposition SJB voted against the resolution. MPs from the TNA, the JVP-led NPP, and the SLPP dissidents voted against it.

The SJB’s Vadivel Suresh, SLFP’s Duminda Dissanayake, SLPP’s Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, John Seneviratne and Sudarshani Fernandopulle were among those who voted for the resolution from the opposition benches.