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<\/a><\/p>\nPresident Sirisena continued to move the goalposts at the multi-party talks, insisting that such a key vote must be taken by name, rather than by voice. Amid major disruptions and outright violence by UPFA MPs aligned with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya took three votes by voice last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, ruling on all three occasions that the controversially appointed Prime Minister had been defeated in the House.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President requested that voting on the no confidence motion be held by name or through electronic voting,\u201d the Presidential Media Division said following the crucial talks.<\/p>\n
The UNP had vowed to deliver 113 affidavits pledging support to Wickremesinghe to the Presidential Secretariat by 10AM today, UNP MP Ajith P Perera told journalists outside the Secretariat on a stormy evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe placed our cards on the table. If they have doubts about the Speaker\u2019s rulings they should challenge them with a motion and pass it,\u201d said Lakshman Kiriella, senior UNP MP who attended the talks. \u201cThe response from the President was nil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
As clouds gathered over the iconic Secretariat building facing Galle Face, hopes were riding on the discussion, that party leaders could find consensus to pull the country out of crisis and constitutional deadlock that has persisted for three weeks.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers told President Sirisena that Parliament had spoken, and the Speaker\u2019s ruling had gone unchallenged in the House. The only way to change that was to challenge the Speaker\u2019s ruling on Standing Orders 76 (1). \u201cThe motion against the Speaker\u2019s rulings had to be passed in Parliament and not in the Presidential Secretariat \u2013 once the speaker makes a ruling, neither the court nor the President can overturn that \u2013 that is intrinsic to the separation of powers doctrine,\u201d an opposition MP argued during the meeting.<\/p>\n
The Opposition even offered to help the UPFA to suspend standing orders at today\u2019s parliamentary session in order to help the Rajapaksa faction to bring the motion, but the UPFA refused to be moved by the proposal, it is learned. At one point UPFA MP Dinesh Gunewardane even referred to the three sittings of Parliament last week as meetings of a \u2018gamsabha\u2019 presided over by Karu Jayasuriya.<\/p>\n
President Sirisena had joined in the UPFA chorus that the process used to pass the no confidence motion was illegal, sources at the meeting said.<\/p>\n
JHU General Secretary Champika Ranawaka was particularly forceful during the meeting, sources said. He accused the President of pulling the stunt out of the blue and plunging the country into crisis, proroguing Parliament to win MPs and eventually dissolving Parliament when he could not muster the numbers. “Parliament met only because of a court order,” he told Sirisena.<\/p>\n
UPFA MPs Wimal Weerawansa and S.B. Dissanayake walked out to address the media, doubling down on the claims that the Speaker had violated standing orders and citing procedural issues with how the No Confidence Motion was passed in Parliament. \u201cThe Speaker is being stubborn,\u201d said Dissanayake.<\/p>\n
Speaker Jayasuriya declined to attend yesterday\u2019s meeting. However, he did speak with President Sirisena on the phone, it is learned. The President had requested the Speaker to give the Rajapaksa faction one more opportunity to show their numbers, it is learnt. The telephone call was reportedly heated.<\/p>\n
JVP decided to boycott talks, saying prophetically in a strongly worded letter to President Sirisena that a solution would not be reached through discussions with him. \u201cYou are the architect the anarchy and instability the country has been subjected to,\u201d the JVP letter signed by Leader Anura Dissanayake charged, \u201conly you can correct it.\u201d Accusing the President of instigating a coup to achieve his own political ends, Dissanayake\u2019s letter said it was the first time in 70 years that such instability had continued for so long in the country.<\/p>\n
Parliament will reconvene today, with a party leaders meeting scheduled for 10AM. This is likely to be another stormy meeting with the UPFA MPs at loggerheads with the rest of the parties represented in Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":195934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n
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