Sri Lankan ruling coalition party urges President to form all-party govt

Sri Lanka’s former president Maithripala Sirisena’s Freedom Party has called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to form an all-party government to tide over the worst economic crisis in the island nation and said that it may leave the alliance if its request was ignored.

The country is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts the public has been suffering for weeks.

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Party’s general secretary and state minister Dayasiri Jayasekera said that the Central Committee decided on Friday (April 1) to urge for the formation of a government representing all parties in Parliament.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) with 14 Members of Parliament is the largest group within the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) ruling coalition.

Sirisena is the SLPP chair but he is not a minister.

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“We have entrusted the party leaders to take a decision as to whether the SLFP would leave the government if the government ignored our request to form an all-party government,” Jayasekera said.

The SLPP coalition, an alliance of 11 parties, has been in trouble recently.

Two of the 11 party leaders were sacked as Cabinet ministers while another Cabinet member has joined them in criticising the government’s handling of the economic crisis.

On Thursday night, a large demonstration opposite the private residence of Rajapaksa led to mass-scale arrests. They held placards calling Rajapaksa go home, blaming him for the hardships.

In view of the protests, the President declared a nationwide public emergency with immediate effect from April 1.

Rajapaksa has defended his government’s actions, saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven where the island’s tourism revenue and inward remittances waned.