NMSJ welcomes move to place limits on MPs who betray people’s mandate

Friday, 29 May 2026 07:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) in a statement yesterday said it believes that the move to present a new Bill to Parliament to revoke the parliamentary seats of Members of Parliament who cross over to other parties after being elected by the people, in violation of the mandate they received, could become an opportunity for meaningful reform.

Considering the late Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, the founding leader of NMSJ, the statement said the organisation consistently voiced this position from 2013 onwards.

“We believe that such a measure should not be limited only to Members of Parliament. It should also apply to Provincial Council members as well as representatives of local government bodies. What we mean by this is that no elected representative should be allowed to betray the voters who elected them, or the wellbeing of the nation, for personal gain or due to external pressures,” NMSJ said. It also said the following.

“Honesty and commitment to principles are among the most essential factors in ensuring the effective functioning of a democratic system and in building public trust. At the same time, our organisation wishes to stress another important point. Public representatives must also be guaranteed the freedom to act according to their conscience when it comes to protecting the national interest and the wellbeing of the State.

To ensure this, internal democracy within political parties that seek power must also be strengthened, and such democratic practices should be visible to society at large.

Accordingly, our organisation believes that the proposed new law, which is being prepared to deal with public representatives, should only prevent situations where elected representatives act against the public mandate for narrow objectives, privileges, personal benefits, or other gains, while fully safeguarding democratic principles.

At the same time, we also wish to emphasise that such legislation must protect the multi-party democratic system as well as the freedom of conscience required for representatives to act with national responsibility.

We further stress the importance of following a proper process in carrying out this nationally significant reform, including adopting a clear mechanism to explain the objectives of the proposed changes. Our hope is to see the emergence of a clean and principled political culture in Sri Lanka.”