Opposition unites against Govt. over lack of slots in parliamentary bodies

Thursday, 30 January 2025 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The political parties representing Parliament will unite in a joint effort to challenge the ruling National People’s Power (NPP), accusing it of undermining parliamentary tradition by failing to allocate an adequate number of slots to them in committees.

Opposition parties met to discuss ways and means to challenge the Government. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa chaired the meeting according to a statement released by the Opposition Leader’s office.

Premadasa appealed to all political party leaders to join in on the effort to win the rights of the Opposition and to raise the issue both in and outside Parliament.

MP Ravi Karunanayake confirmed that he too attended the meeting and the main topic was the Government’s stance in giving slots to Opposition in the committees. “We will come out with a strategy next week,” he said.

Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader Mano Ganesan, who has also attended yesterday’s meeting, said the Opposition parties will meet for another discussion next week and would finalise a strategy to take up the ruling party.

“The ruling party wants 70% representation in all parliamentary committees. The tradition in Parliament has been that the ruling party gets to enjoy a majority of two members in each committee than the Opposition. However, the NPP wants 70% of its members in each committee while the Opposition could enjoy only 30%. All Opposition parties are striving to take this matter up together and to get more slots in the committees,” he said.

MPs P. Digambaram, Anuradha Jayaratne, and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam were among those who were present at the meeting.