Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake complained that Members were raising irrelevant matters and urged the Chair to control the House, alleging that threats of a No-Confidence Motion against the Chair amounted to intimidation and reflected a return to disruptive conduct. He clarified that No-Confidence Motions may be brought against parliamentary office-holders such as the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Ministers and Opposition office-holders, but argued that a Deputy Minister does not hold such a parliamentary office. He also stated that only the Prime Minister and Cabinet can respond on behalf of the President.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 When they speak, how many irrelevant matters do they raise? Please control the House. This is intimidation: they threatened yesterday that if you did not give the decision they wanted, they would bring a No-Confidence Motion against you. Today they brought back the old disruptive culture.
¶ 02 Some also claim a past Opposition Leader, A. Amirthalingam, faced a No-Confidence Motion in Parliament. Yes, Office-holders in Parliament such as the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Cabinet Ministers, the Leader of the House, Government Chief Whip, Leader of the Opposition and Opposition Whip can face such motions. A Deputy Minister does not hold a parliamentary office. Therefore, that is different. Moreover, only the Prime Minister and Cabinet can answer on behalf of the President.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 11 September 2025 ·No. 1758278142029989 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 11 September 2025. No. 1758278142029989. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/1069