Forcible occupation of PM’s office by Mahinda, TNA tells diplomats

A person calling himself the Prime Minister is occupying that office by force after Parliament passed two no faith votes against him, the Tamil National Alliance told a group of 15 Colombo-based diplomats last evening. 

The Speaker ruled on 15 November that after the no confidence motion against the purported Prime Minister and his Government was carried, under Article 48 (2) of the Constitution the Cabinet of Ministers stands dissolved, Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan told the diplomats during the meeting. 

“We told them that this was a very serious situation. During this vacuum certain elements could take the law into their own hands and create unnecessary turbulence,” Sampanthan said while meeting journalists soon after the briefing with diplomats. 

“The victims could be the minorities and particularly the Tamil people,” he added. 

Sampanthan said the TNA continued to be concerned about such situations developing in the future. 

“It is our duty to bring the matter to their knowledge in order for them to use their influence with whoever to set things right,” the Opposition Leader noted. 

All 14 MPs of the TNA met with the 15 diplomats for a meeting that lasted 90 minutes at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition at Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo. Heads of mission from the Australian High Commission, the Canadian High Commission, the Norwegian Embassy, the Embassy of Switzerland, Head of Delegation of the European Union and the UN Resident Coordinator attended the meeting. High-level representatives from the US Embassy, British High Commission, Korean Embassy, Indian High Commission and the Bangladesh High Commission also attended the meeting. 

Together with the JVP, the TNA has been an opposition party standing resolutely against what they insist was the unconstitutional appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister on 26 October, and the party’s 14-member bloc voted three times in Parliament last week to defeat the controversially appointed Prime Minister and his Cabinet when no faith motions were taken up in the House.