Sajith accuses Government of blocking Speaker no-confidence motion

Saturday, 7 November 2026 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa

Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday accused the Government in Parliament of pressuring the Opposition to rewrite its no-confidence motion against Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne, and said the House would not take it up unless the clauses were changed.

Premadasa called the intervention unconstitutional, arguing that the Opposition alone decides whether to move such a motion and what it contains.

“The Opposition has the right to submit a no-confidence motion and to determine its contents. The Government has no authority to interfere with the matters included in it,” he told the House.

He said the Constitution establishes three branches of government with checks and balances, and that moving a no-confidence motion is one of the legislature’s own instruments.

Premadasa said the motion had been listed in the Order Book, but that the Opposition was subsequently instructed at a party leaders’ meeting to amend its contents before it could be debated.

He described the requirement as an attempt by the executive to undermine the legislature and asked for the matter to be re-examined.

Premadasa said parliamentary privileges had been violated under Standing Orders 29(1) and 29(2), and that he and Opposition MPs Mano Ganesan, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Mujibur Rahman and Chanaka Madugoda had raised questions of privilege over the rejection of the motion without a debate.

The dispute pits the Speaker’s office against the Opposition benches at a point when the Government controls the order paper and therefore the timing of any debate.