No-confidence motion against Sri Lankan President defeated in Parliament

A no-confidence motion against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defeated in the Parliament today after 119 MPs voted against it. The motion to suspend the Parliament’s standing orders to debate the Motion of Displeasure against the President was moved by the opposition party, Tamil National Alliance MP MA Sumanthiran.

Out of the total MPs, only 68 MPs voted in favour of the motion. Thus, it was not taken up for the debate in the Parliament.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Harsha de Silva said that among the other MPs, the newly elected Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also voted against the motion.

This comes amid the rising demands for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa soon after former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa filed his resignation.

The country is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the citizens, resulting in massive protests over the government’s handling of the situation. Due to an acute shortage of foreign exchange, Sri Lanka recently defaulted on the entirety of its foreign debt amounting to about 51 billion US Dollars.