The decision to appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister is being challenged by opposition political parties and the clergy.
In a dramatic turn of events with the swearing in of the new prime minister reportedly just hours away, the Ven Omalpe Sobitha and Malcom Cardinal Ranjith told the press that the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe is a unilateral decision which has been taken by the President. They said the President’s decision is unconstitutional and unlawful and that the prime minister’s swearing in must not go ahead.
Their contention is that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has now come forward to accept the prime minister post and to form a government and that this is the constitutional and lawful way to proceed.
Premadasa sent his acceptance letter to the President earlier today. In it he said that his acceptance will be conditional on the President stepping down and the abolishing of the Executive Presidency, both within a given time frame.
In a blistering attack on the decision to appoint Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, the clergy together with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and Frontline Socialist Party, pointed out that it was an appointment which was made without listening to the voice of the people and only to protect themselves. They warned that the peoples’ struggle will continue if Wickremesinghe’s appointment goes ahead.
‘Ranil Wickremesinghe had to come to parliament on the national list because he even lost the election’, said the Ven. Omalpe Sobitha. ‘He is only a single member of a political party. There is now an attempt to put together a group of members to build the party for him by even going to the extent of buying members of parliament’.
The Cardinal asked what happened to the suggestion the Mahanayakes made to the President to appoint a temporary interim government with a neutral candidate as prime minister. ‘We all agree that this country has to be rescued but this is pushing it to the brink. This is just a drama and we cannot accept it’.
The Ven Omaple criticized the President for not being in tune with ground realities. ‘The former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa ignored ground realities and look at what happened to him. The President will have to face the same fate’.
The Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe is because he is the saviour of the Rajapaksas and vice versa and that this is what has been going on for years.
Frontline Socialist Party member Pubudu Jagoda who also addressed the media said that the next will be the setting up of a RanilGoGama. ‘When the President was asked to leave he said the people have voted for him and that he can’t leave. But now he is appointing someone who has lost an election’.
Their shared sentiment is that the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe is not the system change that the peoples’ struggle want.
