Sri Lanka Government Backs Breakaway MPs in Deputy Speaker Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's ruling party backed a group of independent lawmakers in their choice of a deputy speaker in a parliament vote, an attempt to build up support amid plans by the opposition to seek a no-confidence vote against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government.

More than 40 members of parliament who earlier broke away from the ruling coalition over its handling of the economy had put forward their candidate for deputy speaker, who was supported by government lawmakers. The candidate won 148 votes in the 225-member house, or a nearly two-thirds parliamentary majority. 

The results, revealed after a secret ballot Thursday, led to an uproar with opposition lawmakers accusing the independent members of parliament of supporting a government widely seen as responsible for the worst economic crisis in the country for decades. 

“There are only 65 MPs with Sri Lanka, 148 are with the Rajapaksas. These are drama artists.” opposition lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said in parliament during the uproar. 

Ruling party lawmakers said it didn't matter which side the new deputy speaker was aligned to. “He is acceptable to us. In democracy some votes are won. Through the democratic system, without being rigid we hope to make changes in line with the wishes of the people,” Minister of Public Administration Dinesh Gunawardene said. 

Thursday's vote backs the earlier claims by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who's the prime minister, that they have the support of lawmakers. The brothers have resisted calls from the opposition and protesters in recent weeks to step down as inflation rises at the fastest pace in Asia and families queue for essential food items. 

The Rajapaksas and their allies have said Sri Lanka needs to focus on securing funding from creditors including India, China and the International Monetary Fund before looking at making political changes. 

The opposition says the Rajapaksas must step down and take responsibility for the crisis. “We will support economic stability efforts. But we are also with the people,” said Manusha Nanayakkara, another lawmaker. 

He also indicated a split between the so-called independent MPs -- with one group backing the president and the other supporting the premier.

In recent weeks, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been meeting with lawmakers to recruit new cabinet members and to ensure his government has the numbers in parliament while indicating he remains open to a legislative process to curb his wide-ranging powers. The opposition has rejected his overtures and wants to push ahead with the no-confidence and expedite a constitutional change to limit the executive presidency.  

Almost nine out of ten Sri Lankans want to the Rajapaksa family to leave politics with one survey this week showing similar support for Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down. An opinion poll by the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives found 87.3% wanted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign. 

The 1,200 people surveyed between April 19-25 gave clear support for other proposals such as appointing a council of experts to oversee the country until it overcomes the current crisis. Nearly 56% of the poll respondents favored a proposal that demands all 225 lawmakers resign, which would mean fresh elections. 

More than half of the Sri Lankans surveyed said it will take “a long time” for the economy to return to normal while a little more than a quarter said they didn't know when this would happen. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said it would take two years for the country to emerge from the crisis. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.