Sri Lanka’s newly appointed cabinet is likely to be dissolved when majority at an all-party meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agrees on Friday, Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Nalaka Godahewa said.
President Rajapaksa, who is under heavy criticism for the current economic crisis, has called for an all-party conference and has pledged to go for an all-party cabinet once the consensus is reached at the meeting which is scheduled to be held Friday morning.
The earlier cabinet resigned on April 3 and a new cabinet has been appointed, aiming to ease some pressure from the protesters.
“My understanding is unless something drastic happens in between, it is very likely that the cabinet will be dissolved and a new cabinet be appointed,” Godahewa told at a meeting with Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) on Thursday (28).
He also said:
“I think we are heading towards that direction. If majority of them agree to form a cabinet, definitely current cabinet will be dissolved.
If the opposition parties don’t come, it boils down to the original team that are there, then the issue will be what is the cabinet? What is the composition? Who’s going to lead? So those things have to be resolved. I don’t know, the final outcome yet.”
The youth-led protesters have been demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Rajapaksa, Both have defied to step down, but agreed to go for constitutional changes to reduce the powers held by the president.
The protesters have been agitating for the 21st consecutive day on Friday (29) near the presidential secretariat in the heart of capital Colombo near a range of luxury hotels.
People across the country have joined the protesters and have been backing them to bring in a new change in the country’s political system in which many have lost confidence.
The protests were started after shortage of essentials including medicines, fuel, and milk powder led people across the country to stay in queues, sometimes for days amid extended power cuts.
Rajapaksa government has so far not found any sustainable solution to shortages of dollars which has resulted in shortages of essentials as the government could not import the essentials.
“It will at least bring stability inside the parliament,” Godahewa said when asked if a new all-party cabinet would help ease shortages.
He added:
“Right now even to pass an act or any drastic action that we have to take in this economic crisis, certain drastic decisions will have to be made. So if you can’t pass those in the parliament, nothing can be done.
So you need a strong government, first of all, to face this economic crisis. But it will not necessarily solve the mood outside, I think that will continue for a while.
But you have no other way to solve that, unless you put the economy back on track. To put the economy back on track, you will need parliamentary democracy established and a strong government. So that’s the first step you’re trying to achieve.”
