The Joint Opposition(JO) in Parliament is a group that was formulated following discussions between President Mairipala Sirisena and a section of the UPFA, Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in Parliament yesterday.
He said that the Joint Opposition has nothing to do with Parliament. “It should not be allowed as it would create an opportunity in future for a government to send a faction to the opposition and take over the power of the opposition too” Dissanayake said. He made this observation yesterday joining the argument that flared when the JO member Dinesh Gunawardena said that the JO needed more time to speak on the resolution when the Speaker announced to move the adjournment motion.
He said that he made this statement as the Joint Opposition made various allegations against them.
“We are the real opposition. And we should get 60 percent of the speaking time as per the usual practice but that tradition was broken by former Minister Basil Rajapksa. He introduced a new tradition where the speaking time was divided by 50 percent to both the sides,” MP Dissanayke said. “However, we do not ask for 60 percent of the time since we are a small group”.
He also said that the time the Joint Opposition is getting now is a portion of the time allocated for the government. He also invited the UPFA to sit with the opposition and said they were ready to hand over the position of opposition leader to the UPFA. He added that the Joint Opposition had not contested separately but with the UPFA at the election. The majority of the seats in the opposition have been taken by the TNA and the second highest number have been taken by the JVP. He added based on the same results the TNA was given the positions of leader of the Opposition and Chief Opposition Whip respectively.
“A section of the UPFA sat with the opposition following the discussions with the President Maithripala Sirisena” MP Dissanayake said. “This should not be allowed as it would create an opportunity in future for a government to send a faction to the opposition and take over the power of the opposition too”.
He also said that the Joint Opposition had handed over the motion to the Speaker and it has been allowed under the category of the Government’s adjournment Motions.
He added that the 70 percent of the speaking time had been given to the government side. It has been divided as 40 percent to UNP and 30 percent to UPFA. The UPFA time has been divided between the Joint Opposition and the Government side members. The due time to Joint Opposition has been calculated in such a manner.