UNP could submit fresh No-Confidence Motion - Speaker

Uditha KUMARASINGHE and Irangika RANGE

Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara told Parliament yesterday that the UNP sponsored No-Confidence Motion against the Government had lapsed since the UNP had failed to move it on January 9.

“If the UNP submits this No-Confidence Motion again, there is a possibility of debating it in the near future,” the Speaker said. “I provided the opportunity to the UNP to move their No-Confidence Motion on January 9 by including it to the Order Paper. The motion lapsed as no UNP MP moved it on January 9,” he said.

The Speaker said he arrived at this decision after a firm study on Parliamentary traditions in India, Canada and Great Britain. Speaker Lokubandara was responding to a query by Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michel Perera in Parliament on January 20 regarding the UNP’s No-Confidence Motion.

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said they will submit a fresh No-Confidence Motion against the government today.