Speaker Karu Jayasuriya prevailed in getting former Opposition Leader and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan into the Constitutional Council to fill the vacancy left by UPFA Hambanthota district parliamentarian Chamal Rajapaksa, authoritative sources told the Sunday Observer.
The decision was made when the council headed by the Speaker met at Parliament complex on Friday (05).
After Chamal Rajapaksa’s resignation Opposition Leader and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa maintained that EPDP Leader Douglas Devananda should be appointed to the council as his nominee. This resulted in a major deadlock when Sampanthan was also nominated to fill the same vacancy.
After Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ruled Mahinda Rajapaksa as Opposition Leader, TNA failed to be represented in the Constitutional Council.
Chamal Rajapaksa was nominated by TNA chief Sampanthan as a gesture of goodwill towards the ‘Joint Opposition,’ a caucus of 54 MPs who were not recognised as the legitimate opposition in Parliament because half of their party was sitting in Government. The Hambanthota District MP resigned from the position to make way for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s nominee Devananda.
Till Sampathan’s appointment the TNA was the sole party in Parliament that failed to have a nominee in the Constitutional Council. Devananda is a one-man party represented in Parliament. However, Media Secretary of Sampanthan Raghu Balachandran said the TNA leader was not officially informed of his appointment yet.