Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led government has requested the consent of the Speaker of Sri Lanka's Parliament to form a 'national government'. The move is being viewed as a step to get a majority in the 225-member House. Leader of the House, Lakshman Kiriella handed over a proposal to form a national government to the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya's office.

It may be recalled that Wickremesinghe was sacked by President Maithripala Sirisena in October last year and Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed the prime minister. However, Sirisena was forced to reappoint Wickremesinghe as the prime minister after Rajapaksa failed to prove his majority twice in Parliament. Kiriella said, "The proposal (to form a national government) was handed over this morning to the office of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya."

The Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP) is also in talks with the Sirisena-led SLFP to join the national government claiming that a number party members were willing to become part of it. It is to be noted that Tamil diaspora groups have urged the United Nations to ensure Sri Lanka remains on the UN agenda after March 2019 until it meets human rights, accountability and reconciliation commitments.

In their joint letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, S Sivam, President, United States Tamil Political Action Council, Dr. Vadivelu Santhakumar President, The Canadian Tamil Congress. V Ravi Kumar, General Secretary, British Tamils Forum and M. Manokaran,  Chairman, Australian Tamil Congress, said, the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka which ended in May 2009 is considered one of the most brutal in recent history, with the systematic commission mass atrocity crimes by the government forcesagainst the Tamil population. Shortly after the
end of war, Tamil church leaders and civil society raised grave concern that based on regional official statistics 146,679 people remain unaccounted.