Opposition urges Prez not to appoint more cabinet ministers

The Opposition yesterday criticized the UNP for making a proposal to form a national government and urged President Maithripala Sirisena not to appoint any more cabinet ministers.

UPFA MP Dullas Alahapperuma said according to clause 46/5 of the Constitution, a national government means a government formed by the recognized political party or the independent group which obtains the highest number of parliament seats together with the other recognized political parties or the independent groups.

“This clearly means there has to be more than one party in a national government. One SLMC MP can't form a national government. This attempt is only to to increase the number of ministers. The pure objective is to misuse public funds to entertain MPs by giving them Ministerial posts to sustain the government. We condemn this,” he said.

“We urge the President not to violate the Constitution by swearing-in anyone coming to him,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)