• Says ordinary people struggling to make ends meet in an increasingly worsening situation
• SME-Sector in disastrous situation after promises of govt intervention remains limited to “pieces of paper”
• Assures govt of no attempt at “impeachment or No-Confidence Votes” ; but parliament was needed to face this

News 1^st, (Colombo) May 20,2020: Speaking at a Special Press Briefing this afternoon, the Leader of the Samagi Jana Bala Wegaya (SJB) Sajith Premadasa called on the government to immediately reconvene parliament in order to effectively face the dire state Sri Lanka’s economy finds herself in.

Premadasa pointed out that people’s daily economic situation was “worsening by the day”, and it was now critical for parliament to be reconvened so that steps could be taken to mitigate matters from getting even worse.

He pointed out that the government had promised to support Small and Medium Scale enterprises that were particularly badly hit during the Corona-Crisis, but these promises were limited to “pieces of paper delivered to Banks”. He noted that the impact on the SME sector in Sri Lanka was crippling, as was the personal income of ordinary citizens struggling to make ends meet.

Premadasa’s statement comes a few hours after Presidents Counsel Saliya Peiris, representing the Election Commission submitted to the Supreme Court that the Commission did not anticipate any way of conducting a General Election on June 20^th, but rather any election could be considered only 10-weeks (over two months) after a green-light by health authorities, but added that other mitigating factors could delay it even further.

Premadasa in his statement gave an assurance to the government that within a reconvened parliament, his party would not seek or “even think about” bringing about an Impeachment Motion against the President or No-Confidence motions against sitting members but would rather work together with the government and other parties to effectively and urgently help the people.

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