The No-Confidence Motion against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody was defeated in Parliament on April 10 by a decisive 104-vote majority, with 153 MPs voting against the motion and 49 in favour.
The NCM — the first tabled under the NPP government — was presented by SJB MP Ajith P. Perera, citing alleged irregularities in coal procurement for the Lakvijaya Power Plant and a bribery indictment filed before the Colombo High Court. The government’s comfortable 159-seat parliamentary majority held firm, with no reported NPP defections.
During the debate, the government made a significant concession: Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake announced the appointment of a Special Presidential Commission comprising sitting Supreme Court judges to investigate coal procurement from 2009 to the present. The commission’s scope covers procurements under the Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa administrations — framing the government’s response as accountability-forward rather than a whitewash.
The 49 votes in favour exceeded the SJB’s approximately 40 seats, suggesting some SLPP members joined the opposition — consistent with G.L. Peiris’s earlier call for Jayakody’s resignation. The SJB staged a protest near Parliament before the session.
The IMF’s Mission Chief Peter Papageorgiou separately flagged coal quality as a driver of higher power costs on the same day, adding international scrutiny to the domestic political debate. A COPE audit had earlier quantified coal-related efficiency losses at Rs. 2.24 billion.
Sources: Newswire, Ada Derana
