Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (C) leaves the Parliament after the debate of no confidence against him, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on April 4, 2018. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday survived a no confidence vote submitted against him in Parliament by a group of opposition legislators. (Xinhua/D.LINARA)
COLOMBO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday survived a no confidence vote submitted against him in Parliament by a group of opposition legislators.
A total of 122 legislators voted against the motion after it was debated about 11 hours in the 225-member Parliament, while 76 legislators voted for and 26 legislator abstained.
Those pledged their support for the prime minister included the legislators from his ruling United National Party (UNP), the main opposition Tamil National Alliance and the United National Front Alliance.
President Maithripala Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which is a partner in the coalition government remained divided, with a majority of legislators from the party voting against the no confidence motion.
State Minister of the National Policies and Economic Affairs and UNP member of Parliament Harsha De Silva told Xinhua the prime minister's winning of the no-confidence vote was a great victory for the government and the unity government would work harder to fulfill its pledges to the people.
The no confidence motion was presented to Parliament on Wednesday by Joint Opposition leader MP Dinesh Gunawardena who called on the prime minister to resign following allegations that the government had failed to fulfill its promises in the past three years.
