* Moscow terror attack: President Putin calls for ‘Humanism, Mercy’ as death penalty debate grows     * No Immediate Relief From High Court, Arvind Kejriwal To Stay In Custody     * 2 gambling scandals are now threatening pro sports, and the problems may run deeper     * No immediate dollar estimate on bridge damage or timeline for reopening, Buttigieg says     * REQUIEM FOR A RAPPER: Sex trafficking investigation against Diddy heating up

“Sri Lanka has suffered a coup without guns”

Posted in S. Asia

Published on November 12, 2018 with No Comments

“Willing to work with Sirisena”,Ranil Wickremesinghe

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he is willing to work with President Maithripala Sirisena, who abruptly sacked him on October 26, if given a chance to prove his majority in Parliament. Caught in an unprecedented power struggle, Wickremesinghe is trying to claim legitimacy as the country’s premier, after  Sirisena appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place and subsequently prorogued Parliament until November 16.

On whether he could still work with the President, Wickremesinghe said, “I’ll have no problem working with him, that’s a question you must ask him. The Constitution doesn’t make provision for personal prejudices,” he shared with a leading daily from India.

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker has called the president’s sacking of the prime minister to bring a former leader back to power a non-violent coup d’etat. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya is a key figure in the political standoff that started on Oct 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapakse.
Wickremesinghe is refusing to vacate his prime ministerial residence and insists he remains in office until voted out by parliament. The president had suspended parliament, a move Rajapakse’s opponents say is aimed at preventing it from rejecting his return to power.
“The entire series of events can only be described as a coup, albeit one without the use of tanks and guns,” Speaker Jayasuriya said in a letter dated Nov 5 to diplomats and foreign missions, adding the “entire matter was pre-planned”. Jayasuriya said the majority of parliamentarians view the change in prime minister as unconstitutional. In the letter he said some of them were offered bribes and ministerial jobs to support the new government. He accused Sirisena of acting “contrary to all norms of transparency, decency, democracy and good governance, and contrary to the constitution which he has sworn to uphold and defend.”

 

No Comments

Comments for “Sri Lanka has suffered a coup without guns” are now closed.