Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says it is the ‘blatant falsehoods, corruption and persecution of the opponents’ by the incumbent government that resulted in the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe.

In a statement, MR has noted that it is probably for the first time in the history of the Westminster parliamentary tradition that such a large number of MPs have signed a no-confidence motion but has added that it is hardly a surprise, due to the ‘unethical conduct’ of the government.

MR has also gone on to respond to a claim made by the PM last week, in which he had alleged that a sum of Rs. 28 billion that was obtained by the Highways Ministry and remains unaccounted for, must have been exploited by MR for his helicopter rides and to provide free meals to the public.

In his statement the former President has further noted on PM’s allegations against him, that this short-term NSB loan was used to pay Rs. 6.5 billion as the local component of 22 foreign funded projects which included the Outer Circular Highway and the UK Steel Bridge project etc.

“Some Rs. 14 billion of it was spent on road widening and improvement, another Rs. 4 billion on maintenance and repair of bridges and the final Rs. 3.7 billion on Maganeguma rural road projects. The prime minister was not speaking the truth when he said that this Rs. 28 billion had been used for purposes other than building roads,” MR has further emphasized in his statement.