Former Deputy Speaker and MP Thilanga Sumathipala yesterday charged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya as deliberately misleading the House and the country by politicising procedures and maxims of Parliament by his un-speaker-like conduct.
“He meets with ambassadors and holds discussions about addressing the country’s political problems, consistently highlighting that summoning of Parliament forthwith is a sine qua non for this, when the House is due to meet and sit on November14, and the powers for convening, proroguing and dissolving are prerogatives of the President under Sri Lanka’s Constitution,” Sumathipala said.
A meeting had been held between Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and US ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B. Teplitz today.US embassy tweeted “Met Speaker of Parliament Hon. Karu Jayasuriya @KaruOnline to discuss the importance of Parliament reconvening to put an end to this political crisis. These democratic institutions should serve the people of #SriLanka; let the elected representatives have their say.
“Ten days have passed since the appointment of new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa by the President of this country; Speaker Jayasuriya has not even made a courtesy call to congratulate him,” he observed .
The Speaker had stated that he still accepts sacked former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the legitimate Prime Minister.
“He is acting to the garden scenario as if it was the Speaker who appoints prime ministers of this country,” explained Sumathipala,” He is presumably creating confusion among the public. The country is stable now. People liked the transformation that had taken place.”
He has issued statements about his opinions summoning the House, when those powers are constitutional prerogatives of the President.
Meanwhile, Constitutional experts told the Daily News about the current political situation, that nothing unconstitutional has happened so far in terms of proroguing of Parliament and appointing of a new Prime Minister by the President.
“It must be borne in mind that content of a letter a signed by a set of Parliamentarians, in this case the letter handed over to the Speaker by political parties, the UNP, TNA, JVP and Muslim Congress, be it reasonable or unreasonable as per one’s opinion, it should not be confused with the consistency of the Constitution because it must have one supreme power over and above all other power in the state,” they added.
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