COLOMBO: Two Sri Lankan ministers quit the government yesterday, leaving President Mahinda Rajapaksa without the two-thirds parliamentary majority he enjoyed before calling a snap election to seek an unprecedented third term.
The latest defections reflected growing political disenchantment with the president.
Botanical Gardens Deputy Minister V S Radhakrishnan and National Language Integration Deputy P Digambaram joined opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena, who is spearheading the challenge to Rajapakse in the January 8 election. “There will be more defections before the election,” Sirisena told reporters at a news conference.
“I am confident of victory in the elections,” Sirisena said.
Rajapaksa’s party still holds a comfortable simple majority, but loss of the two-thirds support means it can carry out no constitutional changes without opposition support.
Rajapaksa called the snap election after his party suffered a sharp drop in support in September’s local elections.
The president remains largely popular with voters from the Sinhalese majority after he won a 37-year war against Tamil separatists in 2009, but his support has eroded among minority parties, which usually hold the balance of power. Critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
Both ministers who exited the ruling party’s ranks yesterday are from the minority Tamil Hindu community.
At an opposition press conference they vowed to topple Rajapaksa, who has been in office since 2005 and is South Asia’s longest-serving leader. “We are not alone,” Digambaram told reporters. “We bring with us about 150,000 of our supporters.”
The ministers’ departures reduced the ruling party’s strength in parliament to 148 seats, down from 161 when Rajapakse called the election last month.
The International Crisis Group said in a report this week Rajapaksa was facing an unexpectedly strong challenge from his former health minister Sirisena, who has secured wide opposition support.
AFP
