Voting on the motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe commenced in Parliament, a short while ago.
Several members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which has been divided over the decision, were noticeably absent during the vote which commenced at 9.30pm.
The absent SLFPers include minsiters Mahinda Amaraweera, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Duminda Dissanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe, A.H.M. Fowzie and Ranjith Siyambalapitiya.
The no-confidence vote could go down to the wire and possibly lead to political instability, even if the government manages to scrape a win.
Wickremesinghe’s United National Party-led coalition has 107 members in the 225-member parliament and, until now, the support of 42 members of the SLFP, which gave it a comfortable majority.
But if the SLFP votes against the government, Wickremesinghe could lose his majority. He would then need the backing of minority parties in the
opposition to stay in office.
