The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Galle· 23 January 2025 ·Procedural: Matter of Privilege: Non-Allocation of Time to Speak in Parliament

Parliamentary Procedure

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Responding for the Opposition, Gayantha Karunathilleka said time allocation among Opposition parties is being discussed and that a Member who has now declared he will sit in Opposition can be treated accordingly, provided he agrees to the Opposition’s arrangements on speaking time and seating. He referred to an earlier incident involving the Member and staff of the Opposition Leader’s Office, noting that written complaints had been made to both the former and current Speakers and that an inquiry and response had been requested. On nominations to bodies such as the IPU, CPA and SAARC, he said all who requested places had been accommodated, additional names had been submitted, and the Opposition was awaiting a positive response on increasing its committee representation before finalizing pending nominations.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, responding on behalf of the Opposition: We have discussions to fairly allocate time among all Opposition parties. A problematic incident occurred months ago involving the Member with staff of the Opposition Leader’s Office and some of our MPs; we complained in writing to the former and current Speakers and requested an inquiry and response. The Speaker discussed this again yesterday. The Member has now declared he will not support the Government and will act as an Opposition MP; we view him accordingly. If he agrees to the arrangements we make with other Opposition parties regarding time and seating, we can proceed to allocate time.

¶ 02 On committee nominations (IPU, CPA, SAARC), anyone who requested has been accommodated; we even sent two more names yesterday. We have repeatedly urged increasing Opposition representation in committees and expect a positive response from the President. Once we get it, we can finalize all pending nominations.

Provenance

Source: Hansard, Thursday, 23 January 2025 ·No. 1738314169039521 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Permalink: /lk/speeches/10532

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Cite as: The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2025. No. 1738314169039521. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10532