COLOMBO: Within days of being ousted from the Sri Lankan Presidency, Mahinda Rajapaksa suffered another setback on Wednesday, when his United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) lost power in Uva Province due to defections in the Provincial Council.
With four UPFA councilors switching to the opposition United National Party (UNP), the UNP secured a majority, and its leader, Harin Fernando, was sworn-in as Chief Minister in place of Sashindra Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s nephew.
Similar changes are expected in other provinces, except the Northern Province, where the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is entrenched.
In the Western Province, which includes Colombo, the opposition UNP is short of just four seats and defections to the UNP are expected when the Provincial Council meets on January 20. In the Central Province, the UNP needs just three more, which it expects to get at the next session of the Council on January 16.
Change is possible in the Eastern Province, if the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the TNA join together to overthrow the UPFA. Since both parties are supporters of the Maithripala Sirisena government, such an alliance is a probability.
Rajapaksa’s Plan
However, Rajapaksa has told his followers that he will come back in the parliamentary elections to be held in April. To thwart a comeback, Sirisena will be presenting a supplementary budget on January 29 in which some of the major goodies promised in his manifesto will be fulfilled, according to Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.
Simultaneously, cases will be filed against leaders of the Rajapaka government. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has already submitted to the Bribary Commission complaints against Rajapaksa and his family.
As per Sirisena’s 100 day plan, power will be transferred from the Executive President to the Prime Minister responsible to parliament. Rajapaksa can grab power if he emerges as the leader of the single largest party in parliament in the April elections and becomes PM. He believes that this is possible as he has majority support among the Sinhalese-Buddhist majority, while Sirisena depends heavily on the minorities, whose support is neither guaranteed nor entirely a blessing. This is why UPFA is supporting the abolition or modification of the Executive Presidency.