Sri Lanka president reconvenes parliament amid political crisis

The president of Sri Lanka has agreed to reconvene parliament next week to resolve a constitutional crisis that has left it unclear who the country's lawful prime minister is.

The announcement that Maithripala Sirisena had asked parliament to meet on Monday came from Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's former strongman leader whom Mr Sirisena suddenly appointed prime minister on Friday – triggering a week of political turmoil in Colombo.

“[The] president has decided to reconvene the parliament on 5th [November],” Mr Rajapaksa told a televised meeting in the prime minister’s office, which he moved into earlier this week.

The assembly was abruptly suspended on Saturday, shortly after Ranil Wickremesinghe, the man dismissed by Mr Sirisena as prime minister, called for an emergency vote to prove he still had the confidence of MPs to remain in the job.

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Constitutional lawyers have questioned whether Mr Sirisena had the authority to dismiss Mr Wickremesinghe unless he had lost the support of a majority of the parliament’s 225 members.

Mr Wickremesinghe, whose has remained holed up in the prime ministerial residence since Friday, surrounded by supporters and Buddhist monks, has been demanding parliament be recalled so he can prove his majority.

The UK, US and European Union have also called for the assembly to resume and decide between Mr Wickremesinghe and Mr Rajapaksa.

“The people’s voices have been heard,” Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted on Thursday after Mr Rajapaksa’s comments. “Parliament will be reconvened on the 5th of November. Democracy will prevail.”

Protests

Both sides have called for street protests in Colombo on Monday to demonstrate their public support.

The country’s speaker warned of a “bloodbath” if the standoff continued. A security guard for Arjuna Ranatunga, a cabinet minister allied to Mr Wickremesinghe, killed one man and injured two others on Sunday when he opened fire on a crowd that was trying to prevent Mr Ranatunga from entering his office.

The crisis has divided Sri Lanka’s establishment including its influential clergy. Sources said that an MP allied with Mr Rajapaksa, Wasantha Senanayake, was told by one Buddhist leader that the standoff was harming the public good. But another monk he sought out on Thursday commended him for joining Mr Rajapaksa’s government.

Namal Rajapaksa, an MP and the son of the appointed prime minister, told the Guardian he was confident his father would win a parliament vote. “We always had majority, so will show [it] when we need to,” he said.

Harsha de Silva, a member of Mr Wickremesinghe’s party, also said he believed their numbers were “solid, albeit a few beggars who might still fall prey”.

The Wickremesinghe camp has claimed that Mr Rajapaksa is using money borrowed from China and other countries to persuade MPs to defect to his side – an allegation the former president’s allies have called “a grave insult”.

It is unclear if the vote of confidence will actually take place on Monday. A spokesman for Mr Sirisena, Mahinda Samarasinghe, has previously said the first sitting day could be taken up by an opening ceremony. – Guardian