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PM post: TNA says its support linked to assurances on national question
The main opposition Tamil National Alliance says that in the battle for the Prime Minister’s post, its support will go to the party which will make two key promises on the national question.A TNA spokesman said Opposition and TNA leader R. Sampanthan spoke to Prime Ministers Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday and conveyed the message that the TNA was not interested in protecting or promoting individuals but its interest was in finding a solution to the national question.
The party would support whichever government that would give an assurance that the Constitutional Assembly process to draft a new constitution would continue and the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution would be implemented to achieve meaningful reconciliation and transnational justice, he said.
The TNA is expected to issue an official statement in this regard today.Meanwhile, minority parties in the United National Front (UNF) alliance vowed yesterday to extend their support to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to continue in office.
Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem and All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Bathiudeen met Premier Wickremesinghe yesterday at Temple Trees and expressed their support for him.In Parliament, the TPA has six seats, SLMC seven and the ACMC five.
Reiterating that the democratically elected prime minister was still Mr. Wickremesinghe, Mr. Ganesan urged the Speaker to convene Parliament immediately for the UNF to show its majority in the House.”The Speaker now has a responsibility to immediately convene Parliament and we believe we will be able to show our majority there. Even when a no-confidence motion was presented against the PM recently, we were able to show our majority and defeat it. As such, we believe it is incumbent upon those who claim they have the majority in Parliament to show it,” he said.
SLMC leader Hakeem noted that the current political deadlock should not be resolved on the streets but in Parliament by proving their majority.
“This has happened on a Friday evening, after Parliament concluded its sessions, without the courtesy of the sitting Prime Minister being informed. What has happened is both untenable and unacceptable. It is the on the floor of the House that we can determine who the Prime Minister of this country is. There is no other alternative,” he said.