Governor restrained from dissolving CPC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2002, 19:59 GMT]
The Court of Appeal Wednesday issued restraining order on the Provincial Governor preventing him from dissolving the Central Provincial Council (CPC). The Appeal Court made this order on a petition by the Leader of the Opposition of the Council, sequel to a power struggle between the People's Alliance and the United National Party.

The council's opposition leader, Mr.W.M.P Dissanayake, in his petition has sought the Appeal Court to order the Governor to appoint him as the Chief Minister of the Council as his United National Party (UNP) has won the confidence of 31 members of the 58 member- CPC.

Since the United National Front (UNF) government came to power in December 2001 parliamentary election, several councilors supporting the People's Alliance administration in the CPC have joined the United National Party. However, the Chief Minister is still holding the post without resigning.

Mr.Dissanayake later handed over a request to the Governor with the signatures of 31 councilors asking to appoint him as the Chief Minister instead of dissolving the council.

As the Governor failed to respond favourably to the request, the Leader of the Opposition filed a petition in the Court of Appeal seeking a restraining order on the Governor preventing him from dissolving the council and to appoint him as the Chief Minister.

When the petition came up for inquiry Wednesday, the Appeal Court ordered the Governor not to dissolve the council till 27th March. Furthermore the Court of Appeal directed the Governor, Chief Minister and the Attorney General to appear in court on March 18.