SJB urges speaker to resign or allow no-confidence debate

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and allied opposition MPs called on Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne to resign or allow a no-confidence motion against him to be debated, Daily Mirror reports. Newswire reports that the MPs said they would neither revise nor withdraw the allegations in the motion.

Newswire reports that the motion was lodged in Parliament on October 9 and listed in the Order Book on October 12. At a committee meeting that day chaired by the Deputy Speaker, members proposed asking the Attorney General whether the motion’s allegations could affect ongoing legal proceedings, Newswire reports. The opposition said the proposal was not carried out, according to Newswire.

Newswire reports that a Committee on Parliamentary Business meeting chaired by Wickramaratne on October 23 turned down a debate unless the opposition changed the allegations. The opposition claimed the Speaker shaped that decision to avert parliamentary examination, Newswire reports. It also disputed the government’s argument that the allegations were sub judice, saying legal specialists did not support that view, according to Newswire.

Newswire reports that the opposition said the allegations relied on a parliamentary inquiry report prepared after a letter from the Speaker’s Private Secretary. The MPs said Wickramaratne should step aside at least until an inquiry by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption is completed, Newswire reports. Daily Mirror reports that SJB MP Mujibur Rahman separately accused the Speaker of eroding parliamentary democracy by blocking debate on the motion.

Written automatically by AI from the outlets’ own reports, and not reviewed by an editor. It can be wrong — the original report is the authority.