Constituent parties of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) other than the SLFP should be provided an opportunity to speak independently in Parliament since those parties had not entered into agreements with the UNP, Joint Opposition and SLFP Parliamentarian Chamal Rajapaksa said in Parliament yesterday.
Chamal Rajapaksa made this observation yesterday speaking over the matter of the National Freedom Front’s (NFF) request to sit independently in Parliament.
MP Rajapaksa said that the SLFP General Secretary had entered into an agreement with the UNP. But the other parties in the UPFA had not entered into agreements with the UNP nor did the UNP had consult the views of those parties.
He added due to these reasons those parties should be given opportunities to speak in Parliament.
MP Chamal Rajapaksa also said that the Joint Opposition has more members than that of the official opposition in Parliament.
At this stage, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said he had taken measures to give more opportunities to the Joint Opposition as he could recall the difficulties they had to face while the UNP was in the opposition. I had taken measures to grant 55 percent to the JO of the time allotted to the UPFA. “But, I cannot intervene into the internal matters of a party,” the Speaker said. “The UPFA also has to take a decision on it. If the members have any problems I can attend to them,” the Speaker added.
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