Sri Lanka’s parliament has passed a motion earlier today voting to cut the budget for the Prime Minister’s office, in a blow to Mahinda Rajapaksa and his supporters after they boycotted the sitting.
The motion, which was passed 123 to none, means that Rajapaksa will not be able to use government finances for day-to-day expenditure.
“This means the prime minister will be dysfunctional,” said the UNP’s Ravi Karunayake. “We will bring a similar motion tomorrow to cut down the expenditure of all other ministers,” he added.
Rajapaksa meanwhile denounced the move as “illegal” stating that the “Speaker is acting completely illegally and arbitrarily”.
“We are not participating in such illegal meetings,” he added.
See more from Reuters here and the full text of the Speaker’s address to parliament here.