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Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa has a tough decision to take within the next few days. He has to decide who should be the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, in the wake of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members deciding to join the UNP-led Government with the sanction of the SLFP.

The confusion caused by the unusual situation prompted several MPs including those in the UPFA, in which the SLFP is the main constituent party, to ask the Speaker to rule on who should be the Opposition Leader. The post is now held by Senior SLFP MP Nimal Siripala De Silva who served as Leader of the House under the previous Government.

With the SLFP now well entrenched within the UNP-led Government, with 26 of its members enrolled as Cabinet, State and Deputy Ministers, JVP leader MP Anura Dissanayake was the first to question the legitimacy of an SLFP member continuing to be the Opposition Leader.

He noted that, in the absence of specified criteria in Parliament’s Standing Orders to choose an Opposition Leader, selection of a member to the post has been based on precedence and conventions of the House. “In today’s situation the President is from the SLFP, the Government is led by the UNP and in it now, we have SLFP members too, who have joined with the party leadership’s consent. So how can the SLFP try to hold onto the post of Opposition Leader, now that it is in a coalition with the UNP?” he queried.

Former Chief Opposition Whip MP Dinesh Gunawardena also saw the situation as ridiculous. “We have faced many challenges to our Parliamentary system from time to time, but we have not strayed from the conventions and traditions of this House.” Mr Gunawardena said.

He made a rather impassioned plea to the Speaker to safeguard the dignity of the House and stop it from becoming “joke” in the eyes of the people.
MP Wimal Weerawansa argued that, if the same principle had been applied when UNP MPs crossed over to support the UPFA-led Government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, then the UPFA had sufficient numbers to be in Government as well as hold onto the Opposition Leader’s post.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinge who himself served for 11 years as Leader of the Opposition, said the decision regarding this has to be made by the Speaker, after consulting with all members in the Opposition. “This is a new situation. Once the 19th Amendment is passed, the Opposition Leader will have an important role to play with the creation of the Constitutional Council, and hence, the selection has to be done with much consideration,” the Premier said.

Speaker Rajapaksa admitted that he was facing a dilemma in this situation. “This is a bit of a problem for me too. I will take some time and think it over and give a ruling,” he assured.

While the ruling on who the next Leader of the Opposition should be an important one, with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution too now before the House, the real test for the President and the Government would be when it is put to a vote after debate in Parliament in early April.