New Government 10 independent parties not to accept positions: Wimal

• “Mr. Wickremesinghe is also someone who should be responsible for this economic crisis”
• They would not however, sabotage the new government 

By Ajith Siriwardana  

The ten political parties that became independent in Parliament recently have decided not to be party to or accept any positions in the new government, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa said yesterday.  

He told a news conference that however, they would not sabotage the new government and that they would support constructive actions of the government while functioning as an independent group in Parliament.  
He said they did not believe that the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would be able to stabilise the economy of the country.  

“Mr. Wickremesinghe is also someone who should be responsible for this economic crisis. During his four and half year tenure as Prime Minister from 2015, Sri Lanka had obtained over USD 12 billion commercial loans at higher interest rates. The Foreign Exchange Act, which was more liberalised, was introduced under his government,” he said.   

He said they fear that Ranil Wickremesinghe took over the premiership to carry out the plan of actions, which could not be achieved by Basil Rajapaksa. “That is why we are not becoming an internal party to the government. However, we will not allow this country to run into anarchy or instability. We will function as a responsible opposition,” he said.