Lanka: Tamil National Alliance to support no-trust motion against Rajapaksa

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a political alliance in Sri Lanka that represents the country's Tamil minority, has decided to back the no-confidence motion brought by the United National Party against newly sworn-in Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In a statement, the TNA on Saturday refused to recognise Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka's new prime minister and denounced the sacking of former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as "unconstitutional and illegal". The alliance added that the country's President Maithripala Sirisena did not have the absolute power to remove a sitting premier from office, Colombo Page reported.

The TNA also condemned Sirisena's move to suspend the Sri Lankan Parliament, amid the political turmoil in the island nation, terming it as "undemocratic" and violation of parliamentary supremacy.

Political turmoil erupted in Sri Lanka after Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe on October 26 and replaced him with Rajapaksa following the collapse of the governing coalition between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and UNP.

The island nation also witnessed massive protests when hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Colombo against the sacking of Wickremesinghe and demanded reconvening of Parliament to end the constitutional crisis.