Rajapaksa-backed Oppn moves no trust motion against PM Ranil

COLOMBO: Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa-backed Joint Opposition has moved a no confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who was recently replaced as law and order minister after clashes erupted in the central Kandy district.

Joint Opposition (JO) parliamentarian Ranjith Soysa said the motion of no confidence against the 68-year-old Wickremesinghe will be handed over to Speaker of parliament next week when the House resumes.

Rajapaksa told reporters on Friday that they were close to topple the government.

"He (Wickremesinghe) will have to go soon," Rajapaksa said.

The JO said the motion against Wickremesinghe will contain charges of economic mismanagement by him during the last 3 years.

It said that even some members of Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) would sign the motion.

Among the top most charges against Wickremesinghe would be the alleged scandal in the Central Bank bond issues in 2015 and 2016, Sonysa said. Wickremesinghe is accused of appointing Singapore national Arjuna Mahendran as the bank's governor whose son in law Arjun Aloysius was running a primary dealer firm.

He is also charged of failing to tackle the anti-muslim riots in the central district of Kandy when he was the Law and Order Minister.

Since the February 10 landslide victory by Rajapaksa's new party Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), Wickremesinghe has faced calls for resignation.

The UNP, however, doubted Rajapaksa's ability to topple Wickremesinghe.

Both Rajapaksa loyalists and President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) are short of numbers to win the motion unless large scale defections from the UNP, which seems very unlikely.