Ousted Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe’s alliance on Friday won control of a powerful panel in Parliament, dealing a major blow to President Maithripala Sirisena and his prime ministerial appointee Mahinda Rajapaksa.
President Sirisena’s party members walked out of Parliament, which resumed its session on Friday after being adjourned on Monday, protesting against Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s move to appoint five members of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which is led by the President.
The Speaker named five members from the United National Front (UNF) of Mr. Wickeremesinghe, and one each from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). This is in continuation of the political unrest plaguing the country since October 26.
Both Mr. Wickremesinghe and Mr. Rajapaksa claim to be the prime minister. Mr. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is invalid because he still holds a majority in the 225-member Parliament. Mr. Jayasuriya, at the start of the session, announced that following a meeting of all party leaders that ended without an agreement over the composition of the committee, he had decided to grant five members each to the UPFA and the UNF. The committee would comprise of 12 members, he said.
Speaker’s conduct is biased: senior UPFA member
Senior UPFA member Dinesh Gunawardena termed the Speaker’s conduct biased. “I urge you to recognise us as the government and give us the majority in the select committee. We have precedents that even during the minority governments in the past the government had been given majority in the select committee,” he said.
Lakshman Kiriella, on behalf of the ousted government, said Mr. Jayasuriya had declared the members based on two previous votes that there was no government and the purported government did not exist.
Wimal Weerawansa, another backer of Mr. Sirisena, said that if Mr. Jayasuriya was not recognising the government, they would not recognise him as the Speaker.
“We will leave the chamber allowing you to conduct a meeting of the United National Party,” Mr. Weerawansa said and led Mr. Sirisena’s side out of the chamber. Mr. Jayasuriya then proceeded to take a vote on his decision on the select committee composition after a vote was moved by JVP’s Vijitha Herath.
121 votes for and nothing against
The proposal was adopted with 121 votes for and nothing against. The members of the UNF, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the TNA voted in favour.
Sri Lanka is witnessing a political crisis since President Sirisena abruptly sacked Mr. Wickremesinghe on October 26. He later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election. The Supreme Court overturned his decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls. Speaker Jayasuriya then ordered a floor test in the 225-member Assembly to end the crisis, a move which invited the wrath of the government of Mr. Rajapaksa. However, he has refused to step down.
On Wednesday, Mr. Wickremesinghe’s party handed Parliament another motion, demanding suspension of funds of all Ministry secretaries, whom they claim had been illegally appointed since October 26.
