President Maithripala Sirisena and his appointee to the post of Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa held a special meeting with all SLFP and UPFA Parliamentarians at the Presidential Secretariat, this evening.
The meeting followed a discussion between Sirisena and Rajapaksa over the members of the new Cabinet. A senior SLFP Parliamentarian said Sirisena had given “full freedom” to Rajapaksa to nominate anyone to any position in the government.
The meeting at the Presidential Secretariat was jointly chaired by Sirisena and Rajapaksa, while SLFP Senior Vice Chairman Nimal Siripala de Silva also sat with them.
During the meeting, UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amraweera presented a motion extending the support of all UPFA Parliamentarians to Rajapaksa to continue in his position as the Prime Minister. The motion was seconded by SLFP National Organizer Duminda Dissanayake.
UNP Parliamentarian Ananda Aluthgamage, CWC Leader Arumugam Thondaman and EPDP Leader Douglas Devananda also attended the meeting where the affairs of the new government were widely discussed.
Meanwhile, UPFA Parliamentarian Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the President would address the nation tomorrow. He also added that the new Cabinet of Ministers will take oaths before the President on Monday.
However, UNP’s Harin Fernando said his MPs still function as members of the government. Speaking to media this evening, Fernando said Cabinet members of the UNP will hold a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tomorrow morning and address the press.
Fathima / October 28, 2018
These 3+ years were boring like seeing Sunil Gavaskar batting in multi-day test matches. For me, either MY3 had to go, or RW had to go, FINALLY MY3 acted faster. Thanks to kill the boredom. Whether constitutionally right or wrong, this change was needed, wasted 3+ years, no need to waste another 1+ year – at least one of them should have been energetic. It is Karma RW disappointed the poor kids with false promise of giving them tabs.
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Anonymous / October 28, 2018
Send in the international troops already. This criminal president has to be stopped!
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Anonymous / October 28, 2018
Bring in international troops and throw this illegitimate prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and him government out.
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edwin rodrigo / October 28, 2018
විස කූරු සර්පයා – දැක නෑර මෝඩයා (once you see a snake -do not allow it to go free you fool). Had Ranil followed this famous Sinhala adage this would not have happened.
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Out of a misplaced sense of benevolence, when MR lost, RW even provided a helicopter for him to go to his den in Medamulana. RW should have struck when the iron was hot and thrown him in to jail. MR sat there licking his wounds, recuperated and started go around the country with his Mal Vatti.
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Now the table has turned right around. Ranil is the prey and MR the hunter. Adding insult to injury, he allows his dog WW to attack RW and sits there watching the fun laughing all the time.
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K.Pillai / October 28, 2018
Answers to the mysterious actions by MS are surfacing.
Instead of doing what he did, MS could have waited till the elections. If that urgent, MS could have dissolved parliament. He could have had a second shot with a No-Confidence-Motion (NCM). Instead he sacks RW and appoints MR. Is it because elections may not deliver or NCM may not succeed?
Now MS says ” …….. MR Gets “Full Freedom” To Appoint Cabinet Members……”.
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The next one: President MS waits outside MR’s Office to meet PM-Sir. The ilk of UNP Parliamentarian Ananda Aluthgamage, CWC Leader Arumugam Thondaman and EPDP Leader Douglas Devananda will seen walking in and out!
Was MS pressured in the appointment of CJ SL who is due to retire early next year? Who will be the successor?
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Jayantha de Alwis / October 28, 2018
There’s no doubt that these fellows will also rob the country to the best of their ability. The best we can hope is to have minimum of these rogues. Instead of 225 crooks, better to have about 100 MPs and 10 good for nothing ministers.
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roy / October 28, 2018
These two perpetrators instigated the digana riots. They have planned it well , now the looting begins in front of a massive foolish audience . Where will it end…revolution? Though they are following Ehelepola dates for the atrocities, they can’t be compared to Ehelepola…. these two are rogues.
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singing fish / October 28, 2018
Tamils are not worried about the change of prime minister,we know nothing will happen regarding the problems of the tamils.Both Ranil and Mahinda are cut throats and culprits,they will never return back the lands of the tamils occupied by the army,will not have war crime investigations and punish the perpetrators,will not release the tamils in the prison forever and they will never,ever develope the areas of tamils,instead they will colonise the tamil areas by bringing sinhalese. At this juncture my only request to the guillible Sampsnthan is that if he want to support anyone without a written condition,he should not support.By supporting, the good governance what he achieved upto now? From today he can’t cheat the tamils.
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Nimal Tissa Wijethunga / October 28, 2018
Who have come to Sri Lanka as plunderers, smugglers, kallathonies, slave labourers, invaders captured during wars do not worry about Sri Lanka because they are not Sri Lankans and do not have belonging to the place.
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edwin rodrigo / October 28, 2018
Thoppigala: I was just reading some archives in ‘Ground Views’ and found that RM has not exactly been a saint in the past. I quote from an article written by Sumanasiri Liyanage dated 07/17/2007: Ranil Wickramasinghe seems to think that the security forces should have killed all, nearly 1,500 LTTE members, and destroyed their military hardware. However, that did not happen and the area surrounding Thoppigala was not adequately filled with dead bodies. Wickramasinghe may be thinking about the operations by the security forces in the South in the dark days of the late 1980s and may be sad that it did not recur this time around Thoppigala”. ”
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If this is true, then this guy is not what we think he is. He may have mellowed down with age, but who knows? He may be highly magnanimous to his fellow criminals like Mahinda, the way politicians are, as someone described here in a CT comment and they in turn would protect him.
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The nonchalant way he took his own crime, the Bond scam, is a pointer to this. One thing is sure. They will not prosecute RW. He will walk away, smiling all the way but the Putujjana would have to grin and bear up all the atrocities thrown at them.
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Nimal Tissa Wijethunga / October 28, 2018
Who have come to Sri Lanka as plunderers, smugglers, kallathonies, slave labourers, invaders captured during wars do not worry about Sri Lanka because they are not Sri Lankans and do not have belonging to the place.
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Mano Ratwatte / October 28, 2018
Please let us hope that this crisis is resolved without violence. Why should people have to suffer as a result of such actions? This is a first time in Sri Lanka. India will hold the trump card I think.
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Asoka / October 29, 2018
India burnt their hands once, supporting to LTTE and LTTE teach a very good lesson, killing Rajiv Gandhi and he received a world’s best guard of honor from Sri Lankan also due to double standard policies of India
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namal baba / October 29, 2018
now the trading is on the SLFP MPs also must ask for millions from MR to vote for him other wise they can abscond. Why pay only those bought from other parties. MR is likely to loose like the RW impeachment motion, MRs last few moves were total failure this will also become a fialure. We have not heard from Welgama who wanted to sit with the opposition he will abscond along with some seniors who do not want to see family rule in SLFP. This fellow namal baba is not even fit to be a palathsaba member.
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fred / October 29, 2018
Among the irrelevant reasons the President cited for appointing MR and sacking Ranil was the alleged plot to assassinate him. Surely, the right thing to do about that was to probe the allegation fully and bring the plotters to justice. That was no reason to sack the incumbent PM. Interestingly, the IGP who apparently did not pursue the alleged assassination properly is still in office.
Another silly reason given was that there was a difference in culture between him and Ranil. So, now he should be happy – and we should be happy that the President and MR are cut from the same cloth. How nice. How nice to see them both in pristine white, their hair so youthfully (and suspiciously) black and a fortune in gold adorning their fingers! An interesting parlour game would be to guess which one of them has the more expensive jewellery on his person!
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