Cross overs give Govt absolute majority - Media Minister

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

COLOMBO: Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said yesterday that the Government now commanded an absolute majority in Parliament after securing 113 seats with the cross over of a section of the UNP and the SLMC into its ranks.

"With the support of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) the Government now has 159 seats in Parliament.

"This is a historic victory for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Mahinda Chinthanaya," Yapa said addressing a special press briefing at the Information Department yesterday.

Yapa said that earlier there were 100 Ministers and now it is only 103 Ministers and this was not a significant increase in the number.

However all the subjects have been streamlined. "Now the country has a very intelligent group of cabinet ministers that can act as a intellectual Council which can bring many positive changes and who can agree on many issues".

He said every cabinet and non cabinet ministry (which are under one subject) has now been combined to be under one Ministry.

He stressed all ministers will receive the salary of MPs and there will be no additional costs. On the other hand if the Government decides to hold an election the Elections Department will have spend Rs. 2 million which could be saved."

A talented and well experienced group of UNP MPs joined the Government. Now the Government will be able to find lasting solutions to the ethnic problem and economic problems. Everyone should be happy by this development ,Minister Yapa said.

He said there was no mention in the SLFP-UNP MOU of it becoming annulled by cross over of MPs.

"There is no clause in this regard, therefore UNP MPs crossing over has no impact on the MoU"

He said "There are only six main factors mentioned in the MoU and non of them are relates cross overs. In fact the Government gave adequate time to the UNP to its internal problems.

The SLFP took a common decision to let the UNP MPs to join the Government. Maybe now the UNP is heartbroken and that is why they act this way. So far about 40 UNP MPs have joined the Government. If more UNP MPs want to join us we will accept them", he added.

"Eighteen UNP MPs and six Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) MPs joined the Government. We will never forget the fact that it was JVP that supported us in the victory of the Mahinda Chinthanya. We invite them to join the Government and we also invite JHU", he added.

Answering a question posed by a journalist he said that all ministers are happy with what they got and there were no conflicts.

COLOMBO: The crossing over of 18 UNP members and 6 SLMC MPs has strengthened  the Government. The position of the political parties in the Government and the Opposition is given below.

Political balance in Parliament

COLOMBO: The crossing over of 18 UNP members and 6 SLMC MPs has strengthened the Government.

The position of the political parties in the Government and the Opposition is given below.

 

(01) Political Parties in the Government

No.						Party	No. of
							Member
01	Sri Lanka Freedom Party 		SLFP	58
02	United National Party (Reforming Group)		18
03	Jathika Hela Urumaya 			JHU	09
04	Ceylon Workers Congress 		CWC	06
05	United National Party (Joined Before) 	UNP	06
06	Sri Lanka Muslim Congress 		SLMC	06
07	All Ceylon Muslim Congress		04
08	National Congress (Athaulla Group 	NC	02
09	Sri Lanka Communist Party 		CP	02
10	Mahajana Eksath Peramuna 		MEP	02
11	National Unity Alliance 		NUA	02
12	Ceylon Workers Congress (Joined Before) CWC	02
13	Up-country People’s Front			02
14	Lanka Sama Samaja Pakshaya 		LSSP	01
15	Elam People’s Democratic Party 		EPDP	01
							121

(02) Political Parties Supporting the Government Indirectly

No.					Party	No. of
						Member
01	People’s Liberation Front	JVP	37
02	Independence (Nandana Gunathilaka)	01
						38
(03) Opposite Party

No.					Party	No. of
						Member
01	United National Party		UNP	43
02	Ellankai Tamil Arusu Kadchi	TNA	22
						65

04 (Speaker)