{"id":61548,"date":"2018-11-08T17:43:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T21:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61548"},"modified":"2018-11-08T17:44:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T21:44:41","slug":"traffic-chaos-in-colombo-as-cavalcade-of-ranil-wickremesinghe-supporters-in-motor-cyclesthree-wheelerscars-vans-proceed-to-independence-square-protest-rally-demanding-re-convening-of-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61548","title":{"rendered":"Traffic Chaos in Colombo Ranil Wickremesinghe Supporters Proceed in Cavalcade of Motor Cycles,Three-wheelers,Cars &Vans to Independence Square Protest Rally Demanding Re-convening of Parliament."},"content":{"rendered":"

A rally of hundreds of cars carrying supporters of Sri Lanka\u2019s deposed Prime Minister brought chaos to Colombo streets on Thursday as they demanded that Parliament be reopened. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A noisy cavalcade of motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cars and vans took loyalists of ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to a rally to hear speeches slamming the President for sacking the head of Government last month. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena named former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister in a shock move on 26 October, and suspended Parliament so neither has won a vote of confidence. <\/p>\n

The rival Prime Ministers have now spent nearly two weeks at loggerheads, and the move \u2013 which has been described as illegal by opponents \u2013 has triggered a constitutional crisis. <\/p>\n

Protestors had initially planned to drive to the Residence of Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to urge him to defy the President and lift the assembly suspension. <\/p>\n

But amid traffic chaos, the route was shortened and the rally was staged at Independence Square. <\/p>\n

The motorists displayed posters of Wickremesinghe and carried banners which read \u2018People Power\u2019. <\/p>\n

The US Embassy in Colombo issued a security alert warning of traffic hold ups. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Embassy reminds citizens that even events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

One man was killed and two others wounded in a shooting linked to the constitutional crisis last month. <\/p>\n

The power struggle has paralysed much of the administration, according to legislators on both sides of the dispute. <\/p>\n

Rajapaksa is reportedly trying to engineer defections to ensure he has a majority in the 225-member assembly which Sirisena has said can only reopen on 14 November. <\/p>\n

Sirisena has filled only 22 of 30 Cabinet positions \u2013 purposefully keeping some jobs vacant to tempt legislators of Wickremesinghe\u2019s party to defect to Rajapaksa\u2019s side. <\/p>\n

According to latest counts, Wickremesinghe has 103 MPs after gaining a defector on Tuesday, while Rajapaksa and Sirisena have 101. <\/p>\n

Most of the remaining 21 MPs are set to oppose Rajapaksa, observers say<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

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

A rally of hundreds of cars carrying supporters of Sri Lanka\u2019s deposed Prime Minister brought chaos to Colombo streets on Thursday as they demanded that Parliament be reopened. A noisy cavalcade of motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cars and vans took loyalists of ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to a rally to hear speeches slamming the President for …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Traffic Chaos in Colombo Ranil Wickremesinghe Supporters Proceed in Cavalcade of Motor Cycles,Three-wheelers,Cars &Vans to Independence Square Protest Rally Demanding Re-convening of Parliament.’ »<\/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\/61548"}],"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=61548"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61551,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61548\/revisions\/61551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}