APD | Sri Lanka's Government survives no-confidence vote

By APD writer Easwaran

COLOMBO, July 11 (APD) -- Sri Lanka's Government, on Thursday, survived a no-confidence motion in Parliament with the motion being defeated in a vote.

The motion was presented by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) accusing the Government over the Easter Sunday attacks.

After two days of debate the motion was taken for a vote on Thursday and 92 MPs voted for the motion while 119 voted against it.

The opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Joint Opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa voted in support of the motion with the JVP.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka's main minority Tamil political party, voted against the no-confidence motion.

Speaking ahead of the vote during the debate on the motion, TNA leader R. Sampanthan said that there was no doubt the Government must be condemned over its failure to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks.

However, he said there was a concern that if the Government loses the no-confidence motion it will be removed from office.

He said that in 2015 the Tamils supported the new Government as they had concerns over the record of the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Government on the human rights issue.

Sampanthan said that the human rights record of the current Government is better than the former regime.

He also said that if there was a Government change now, there is no clarity what the policy of the new Government would be.

As a result, he said the TNA could not support moves to remove the current Government.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)