The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) said on Wednesday that the no-confidence motion against Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne is out of the parliamentary process after he rejected it.

The motion was handed to the Secretary General of Parliament, Kushani Rohanadeera, and was included in the Order Book on 12 October, the SJB said.

SJB MP Ajith P. Perera said the Opposition would have to bring a new no-confidence motion. For now, the party is considering a complaint to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), he said.

Perera said the IPU and the CPA could not respond swiftly to the situation the Speaker had created. He indicated that the original motion had been discarded through illegal means.

The MP said it was unfortunate that the Speaker himself had been allowed to discard a motion that dealt with a series of allegations against him, including some relating to corruption. The allegations have not been proven.

Political sources said the government, led by the National People’s Power (NPP), had succeeded in stifling the motion. They said the Opposition’s efforts to pursue the matter inside and outside Parliament were unlikely to receive attention once the Budget is presented on Thursday.

The Budget debate is scheduled to run for 26 days, from 13 November to 14 December, which the sources said would push the motion further into the background.

Background

The Speaker presides over the sittings of Parliament and rules on questions of procedure. A no-confidence motion against the Speaker is a notice given by MPs and entered in the Order Book, the list of notices of motions and questions awaiting the attention of the House.

The IPU is the global organisation of national parliaments, and the CPA links legislatures across the Commonwealth. Both bring MPs from different countries together, and the SJB has said only that it is considering approaching them.

The Budget is presented by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who holds the Finance portfolio. Parliament meets at 1.30 pm on Thursday for the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill for 2027, which had its First Reading on 7 October.

The Second Reading debate will run from 13 to 20 November, with the vote at 6.00 pm on 20 November. The Committee Stage debate will follow from 21 November to 14 December, ending with the vote on the Third Reading at 6.00 pm on 14 December.

What it means

For readers, the immediate effect is on the parliamentary calendar. The Budget debate, which decides how public money is spent in 2027, will take up Parliament’s time until mid-December.

According to Perera, any further attempt to question the Speaker’s conduct would require a fresh motion, as the one entered in the Order Book on 12 October is no longer before the House.