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15th Parliament of Sri Lanka

2015–2020 meeting of the Sri Lankan legislature From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka, known officially as the 8th Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, was the meeting of the Parliament of Sri Lanka with its membership determined by the results of the 2015 parliamentary election, held on 17 August 2015. The parliament met for the first time on 1 September 2015 and was dissolved on 3 March 2020.

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Election

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Winners of polling divisions.
UNFGG in   
UPFA in   
TNA in   

The 15th parliamentary election was held on 17 August 2015.[1][2][3][4] The incumbent United National Party (UNP)-led United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) won 106 seats, an increase of 46 since the 2010 election, but failed to secure a majority in Parliament.[5] The main opposition alliance, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won 95 seats, a decline of 49.[5][6] The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest party representing Sri Lankan Tamils, won 16 seats, an increase of two from 2010.[5] The remaining eight seats were won by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (6), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (1) and Eelam People's Democratic Party (1).[7]

Results

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  1. The UNFGG contested under the name and symbol of UNP. The alliance consisted of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress(which contested separately in one district, Ampara), the Democratic National Movement, Jathika Hela Urumaya, the Muslim Tamil National Alliance, the National Front for Good Governance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (which contested separately in two districts, Batticaloa and Vanni), the Tamil Progressive Alliance (the Democratic People's Front, the National Union of Workers and the Up-Country People's Front), the United Left Front and the United National Party.
  2. Consisting of the Ceylon Workers' Congress (which contested separately in three districts, Badulla, Kandy and Kegalle), the Citizen's Front (which contested separately in two districts, Nuwara Eliya and Vanni), the Democratic National Front, the Democratic People's Congress, the Liberal Party (which contested separately in four districts, Colombo, Galle, Kurunegala and Matara), Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the National Congress, the National Freedom Front, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, the Socialist Alliance (the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, Democratic Left Front, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, National Liberation People's Party and Sri Lanka People's Party), the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal and the United Citizens’ Front.
  3. Bodu Bala Sena and the United Lanka Great Council
  4. Contested under the name and symbol of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress.

The new parliament was sworn in on 1 September 2015.[8] Karu Jayasuriya was elected Speaker, Thilanga Sumathipala as the Deputy Speaker and Selvam Adaikalanathan as the Deputy Chairman of Committees.[9][10] Lakshman Kiriella was appointed Leader of the House and Gayantha Karunathilaka was appointed Chief Government Whip.[11][12]

The Speaker recognised TNA leader R. Sampanthan as Leader of the Opposition on 3 September 2015.[13][14] JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was nominated to be Chief Opposition Whip.[15][16]

The Parliament became a Constitutional Assembly on 9 March 2016 in order to formulate a new constitution for Sri Lanka.[17]

Thilanga Sumathipala resigned as Deputy Speaker on 25 May 2018.[18][19] His replacement Ananda Kumarasiri was elected on 5 June 2018.[20][21]

Following the withdrawal of the UPFA from the national government, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Mahinda Amaraweera were recognised as Leader of the Opposition and Chief Opposition Whip respectively on 18 December 2018.[22][23]

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Government

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On 20 August 2015, the central committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent party of the UPFA, agreed to form a national government with the UNP for two years.[24][25] Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the UNP, was sworn in as Prime Minister on 21 August 2015.[26][27] Immediately afterwards, a memorandum of understanding to work together in Parliament was signed by acting SLFP general secretary Duminda Dissanayake and UNP general secretary Kabir Hashim.[28][29] On 3 September, Parliament voted by 143 votes (101 UNFGG, 40 UPFA, 1 EPDP, 1 SLMC) to 16 votes (11 UPFA, 5 JVP), with 63 absent (43 UPFA, 16 TNA, 3 UNFGG, 1 JVP), to approve the formation of a national government.[30][31]

Three UNFGG cabinet ministers were sworn in on 24 August 2015.[32][33] A further 39 cabinet ministers, 28 from the UNFGG and 11 from the UPFA, were sworn in on 4 September 2015.[34][35] Three more cabinet ministers, one from the UNFGG and two from the UPFA, were sworn in on 9 September 2015.[36][37] 19 state ministers (11 UNFGG, 8 UPFA) and 21 deputy ministers (11 UNFGG, 10 UPFA) were also sworn in on 9 September 2015.[38][39] Two more deputy ministers, both from the UPFA, were sworn in on 10 September 2015.[40][41] A further cabinet minister from the UPFA was sworn in on 23 October 2015.[42][43] A further cabinet minister from the UNFGG was sworn in on 25 February 2016.[44][45][46] A UPFA state minister and two deputy ministers (one UNFGG, one UPFA) were sworn in on 6 April 2016.[47][48]

Constitutional crisis

The UPFA withdrew from the national government on 26 October 2018.[49][50] President Maithripala Sirisena, leader of the UPFA, dismissed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.[51][52][53][54] The following day Sirisena prorogued Parliament.[55][56] A constitutional crisis ensued as the UNP refused to accept the changes, describing them as unconstitutional, illegal and a coup.[57][58] Over the next few days, Sirisena appointed a new cabinet consisting of MPs from the UPFA, EPDP and defections from the UNP.[59][60][61] Despite the defections, the UPFA could not muster the support of a majority of MPs and with the TNA, which held the balance of power in Parliament, announcing that it would support a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Rajapaksa, Sirisena dissolved parliament on 9 November 2018 and called for fresh elections on 5 January 2019.[62][63][64] The UNP, TNA, JVP and several others challenged the dissolution in the Supreme Court which on 13 November 2018 issued a stay on the dissolution until 7 December 2018.[65][66][67]

Parliament re-convened on 14 November 2018 when 122 (100 UNFGG, 14 TNA, 6 JVP, 2 UPFA) out of 225 MPs supported the motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Rajapaksa.[68][69][70] Sirisena and the UPFA refused to accept the motion of no confidence, saying that Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had not followed parliamentary procedures.[71][72] On 16 November 2018, parliament passed an amended motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Rajapaksa with the support of 122 MPs.[73][74] Sirisena rejected the second the motion of no confidence as well, saying that he would not re-appoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister.[75][76]

On 3 December 2018, following a quo warranto petition filed by 122 MPs, the Court of Appeal issued an interim order restraining Rajapaksa and 48 ministers from functioning.[77][78][79] On 12 December 2018, 117 MPs, including 14 from the TNA, supported a motion of confidence in Wickremesinghe.[80][81] A seven-bench Supreme Court unanimously ruled on 13 December 2018 that Sirisena's dissolution of parliament on 9 November 2018 was unconstitutional and null, void ab initio and without force or effect in law.[82][83][84] The following day a three-bench Supreme Court refused to vacate the Court of Appeal's interim order but allowed for a full appeal to be heard in mid January 2019.[85][86] Rajapaksa resigned as Prime Minister on 15 December 2018,[87][88] and Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister the following day, ending the crisis.[89][90]

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Legislation

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2015

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2016

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2017

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Composition

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The following are the changes in party and alliance affiliations for the 15th parliament.

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Light shading indicates majority (113 seats or more); dark shading indicates two-thirds majority (150 seats or more); no shading indicates minority government.

The 15th parliament saw a number of defections and counter-defections:

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Members

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Deaths and resignations

The 15th parliament saw the following deaths, resignations and disqualifications:

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Notes

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References

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