Johnston thanks SJB for bringing NCM, says 'parliamentary democracy is fully-functioning'

On June 16, several Members of Parliament representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) signed a 10-point motion of no-confidence against Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila, citing the recent ‘arbitrary’ increase in fuel prices.

Accordingly, The no-confidence motion brought against the Energy Minister was defeated yesterday (20) by a majority of 91 votes with  61 MPs voting in favour while 152 voting against it.

Speaking to media at his ministry, the Minister said that once the vote on the motion against Minister Gammanpila would be taken the entire world would come to know that the government still commands its undisputed power in Parliament.

"This would build confidence in the government by many foreign nations and other international bodies. Apart from that it would also prove that parliamentary democracy is fully-functioning here while many other countries could not even cope with the global pandemic.

We are a democratic alliance of parties with various ideologies. Our alliance is so democratic that the alliance members could voice their opinions even sometimes to the level of expressing their unhappiness of some decisions that we make. But that does not mean our members would go and vote with Sajith Premadasa and his group," he said.

The vote on the motion against minister Gammanpila would also show the world how disorganised the opposition parties are, Minister Fernando said.

“The UNP says that it would vote for a motion against the government and not against Minister Gammanpila. It seems that the UNP would not vote with others in the opposition. The JVP says that the SJB’s motion would end up in a loss boosting government’s confidence. Then some SJB members say that the motion is not against the minister but against the fuel hike. Likewise their opinion is divided. They are in disarray and have nothing meaningful to do. So they resort to this type of political nonsense,” the Minister added.