The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said yesterday the government had ceased to function in the wake of President Maithripala Sirisena refusing to convene the weekly Cabinet meeting.
He is reported to have informed the ministers that there would be no Cabinet meeting until the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) on Easter Sunday attacks was called off.
SLPP Chairman G.L. Peiris said no Cabinet meetings meant there was no government.
“There will be no cabinet meetings until the PSC is called off. Meanwhile, Speaker says the PSC will not be stopped. The United National Party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Tamil National Alliance say in unison that the PSC should continue. The only solution to this stand off is going for an early general election after dissolving the parliament by way of a resolution passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority,” he said.
Responding to a statement by an NGO that both the President and the Prime Minister should step down making way for a caretaker government headed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Prof. Peiris said the Speaker cannot be considered unbiased and impartial.
He said the NGO had also proposed that the caretaker government should introduce constitutional amendments and abolish the executive presidency.
“A caretaker government cannot bring in constitutional amendments. Only a government which has a public mandate can do so. It is not practical to abolish the executive presidency at this juncture and it is not the time to go ahead with the 20th amendment. We won’t support it in the current scenario,” he said.
