{"id":61416,"date":"2018-11-02T19:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T23:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61416"},"modified":"2018-11-02T19:49:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T23:49:41","slug":"118-of-225-mps-meet-speaker-karu-jayasuriya-in-parliament-committee-room-and-submit-resolution-refusing-to-accept-president-sirisenas-appointment-of-mahinda-rajapaksa-as-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61416","title":{"rendered":"118 of 225 MP’s Meet Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in Parliament Committee Room and Submit Resolution Refusing to Accept President Sirisena’s Appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister ."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians and Jeffrey Gettleman<\/strong><\/p>\n

S<\/strong>ri Lanka\u2019s politics plunged into deeper turmoil on Friday when a majority of the country\u2019s parliamentarians refused to recognize the appointment of the new prime minister amid rising tensions and accusations of millions of dollars in bribes. <\/p>\n

Last week, President Maithripala Sirisena unexpectedly fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, accusing him of being inflexible and corrupt, and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president who is considered by many to be the strongman of Sri Lankan politics. Human rights investigators have accused Mr. Rajapaksa of war crimes dating to the country\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n

Since last week both Mr. Rajapaksa and Mr. Wickremesinghe have claimed to hold power, setting off a constitutional crisis in this island nation, a popular tourist destination and a major producer of tea and coconuts.<\/p>\n

While Mr. Rajapaksa has been meeting with foreign diplomats and making the rounds of government offices in the seaside capital, Colombo, Mr. Wickremesinghe has been holed up in the stately prime minister\u2019s residence, Temple Trees. Hundreds of his supporters are standing guard outside, vowing to protect him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers backing Mr. Wickremesinghe say they have been offered bribes of over $2 million to switch their support to Mr. Rajapaksa. Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s son, Namal, posted a Twitter message saying his party had no information about bribes being offered and that any such accusations should be immediately investigated.<\/p>\n

On Friday, 118 lawmakers, a majority in the 225-seat body, poured into a committee room in the Parliament building for a meeting with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. The legislators signed a resolution asserting that Mr. Sirisena\u2019s actions were \u201cunconstitutional, illegal and null and void\u201d and refused to \u201caccept the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister by the president and all other appointments subsequently made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis constitutional coup is now over,\u2019\u2019 announced Karunarathna Paranawithana, a lawmaker in Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s coalition. \u201cThe only way Rajapaksa can hold on to power now is through the use of thuggery or the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has had a rocky recent past. It recently emerged from an ethnically driven civil war that Mr. Rajapaksa brought to an end with aggressive tactics that human rights investigators say killed thousands of civilians.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether he will be able to ride out this turmoil and legitimize his position as prime minister.<\/p>\n

Much hinges on when Parliament will officially convene. Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s side wants Parliament to convene next week, but a spokesman for the new government said Parliament won\u2019t meet again until Nov. 16.<\/p>\n

The longer the standoff continues, analysts said, the more it will help Mr. Rajapaksa, allowing him to use his copious resources and political skills to peel off lawmakers to his side. Five legislators from Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s party have already defected to Mr. Rajapaksa and been granted cabinet posts.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sirisena dismissed Mr. Wickremesinghe on Oct. 26 and named Mr. Rajapaksa to replace him. He then suspended Parliament, preventing a vote to determine which of the two could muster a majority and become leader.<\/p>\n

The dispute took a deadly turn last weekend when government workers loyal to the president swarmed a minister who had been ousted with Mr. Wickremesinghe. The minister\u2019s bodyguard opened fire, killing one person.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s meeting with Mr. Jayasuriya inside Parliament was the first real test of each leader\u2019s support. Mr. Wickremesinghe, whose vote would have brought the tally to 119, did not attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat President Sirisena has done is illegal and undemocratic,\u201d said Rishad Bathiudeen, a Muslim lawmaker and leader of a party that has often played kingmaker in Sri Lankan coalitions. Mr. Bathiudeen and Rauff Hakeem, the leader of Sri Lanka\u2019s largest Muslim party, control 13 seats whose members have decided to stand with Mr. Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers who support Mr. Rajapaksa have said privately that they are worried about gaining enough votes in Parliament, though others predicted Mr. Wickremesinghe would lose support in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Thousands of Sri Lankans have taken to the streets to support Mr. Wickremesinghe and democratic governance. The demonstrations have so far been mostly peaceful, but Mr. Jayasuriya, the speaker, has warned of a \u201cblood bath\u201d if Parliament was not permitted to meet and end the constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n

The accusations of attempted bribery have inflamed the situation. Palitha Range Bandara, a lawmaker from Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s party, told Mr. Jayasuriya that he had been offered $2.8 million to defect to Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bandara said he would file a complaint with Sri Lanka\u2019s Bribery Commission and hand over electronic and documentary evidence.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sirisena has helped Mr. Rajapaksa set up a cabinet of about 14 ministers, and the pair have taken steps to slash prices on consumer and essential goods in an effort to to shore up popular support.<\/p>\n

Many Sri Lankans are upset with the government after sharp rises in the price of household goods in recent months, driven by the country\u2019s growing debt and a weakening currency. A number of big infrastructure projects begun under Mr. Rajapaksa have failed to pay off.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians and Jeffrey Gettleman Sri Lanka\u2019s politics plunged into deeper turmoil on Friday when a majority of the country\u2019s parliamentarians refused to recognize the appointment of the new prime minister amid rising tensions and accusations of millions of dollars in bribes. Last week, President Maithripala Sirisena unexpectedly fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, accusing …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘118 of 225 MP’s Meet Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in Parliament Committee Room and Submit Resolution Refusing to Accept President Sirisena’s Appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister .’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61417,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61416\/revisions\/61417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}