Ranil wickramasinghe no confidence

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has defeated a no-confidence motion in the parliament with a 46 vote majority after a 12-hour debate.

Wednesday’s vote saw 122 legislators back Wickremesinghe, while 76 MPs voted to remove him.

Twenty-six members of parliament were absent during the vote.

The no-confidence motion was initiated by the Joint Opposition group in the parliament led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, only 55 opposition MPs, including four members from the ruling SLFP, signed the document that was handed over to the speaker seeking the no-confidence vote.

Interestingly, Rajapaksa did not sign the document.

The United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) led by Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) has 107 MPs in the 225-member parliament. The UNP, with 81 MPs, relied heavily on the support of allies from the UNFGG to survive the vote.

Wickremesinghe needed the sup