{"id":61708,"date":"2018-11-15T20:06:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T00:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61708"},"modified":"2018-11-15T20:06:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T00:06:46","slug":"sri-lankan-parliament-descends-into-chaos-as-lawmakers-engage-in-scuffle-pushing-kicking-punching-and-shouting-at-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61708","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Parliament Descends Into Chaos as Lawmakers Engage in Scuffle Pushing, Kicking, Punching and Shouting at Each Other."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joanna Slater<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since late last month, politicians in Sri Lanka have engaged in a war of words over who is the country\u2019s rightful prime minister. On Thursday, their battle turned physical.<\/p>\n

A scuffle broke out on the floor of Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament after the speaker attempted to call the body for a vote, the latest maneuver in a three-week-old power struggle that has pitted the country\u2019s president, Maithripala Sirisena, against its sitting prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers pushed and grabbed one another. One threw a garbage can at the speaker. Another clutched the speaker\u2019s microphone and tried to take it away, injuring his hand in the process and requiring a trip to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The fight came as the turmoil in Sri Lanka reached a crucial stage. Sirisena first moved to oust Wickremesinghe as the prime minister on Oct. 26, replacing him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, a controversial former president.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sirisena then suspended Parliament, preventing it from holding any votes. Last week, when it became clear that his faction could not muster majority support in the chamber, Sirisena attempted to dissolve it altogether, a move blocked by Sri Lanka\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Parliament finally reconvened, and in a chaotic voice vote, a majority of legislators rejected Rajapaksa as prime minister (they later presented a signed letter confirming their votes). But Sirisena refused to accept the vote as valid, saying lawmakers had not followed proper procedure.<\/p>\n

The result is a highly tense stalemate that has made it unclear who is in charge in Sri Lanka. After Thursday\u2019s scuffle in Parliament, thousands of Wickremesinghe\u2019s supporters took to the streets of Colombo, the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Harsha de Silva, a lawmaker in Wickremesinghe\u2019s United National Party, said the crowds demonstrated that \u201cwe have power both inside and outside\u201d the Parliament. He urged Rajapaksa to end his quest for the prime minister\u2019s post. \u201cGo for God\u2019s sake Go!\u201d he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa served as the country\u2019s president for a decade and put a brutal end to Sri Lanka\u2019s long-running civil war in 2009. He was ousted in 2015 and more recently has been maneuvering to return to power. On Thursday, he gave a speech in Parliament calling for fresh elections to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suggest that we take this matter before the 15 million-plus voters in the country instead of trying to resolve this among the 225 persons sitting in this House,\u201d said Rajapaksa. He accused the speaker of acting \u201chand in glove with certain Western embassies.\u201d Not long after Rajapaksa stopped speaking, the pushing and shoving began. The Parliament is expected to reconvene Friday.
\n
\nCourtesy:The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Joanna Slater Since late last month, politicians in Sri Lanka have engaged in a war of words over who is the country\u2019s rightful prime minister. On Thursday, their battle turned physical. A scuffle broke out on the floor of Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament after the speaker attempted to call the body for a vote, the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan Parliament Descends Into Chaos as Lawmakers Engage in Scuffle Pushing, Kicking, Punching and Shouting at Each Other.’ »<\/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\/61708"}],"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=61708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61709,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61708\/revisions\/61709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}