Will not recognise Rajapaksa as Lanka PM unless he proves majority in Parliament: Speaker
Colombo, Nov 5 : Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya Monday slammed President Maithripala Sirisena's "unconstitutional and undemocratic" actions to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspend Parliament, saying he will not recognise Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new premier unless he wins a floor test.
The tough statement from Jayasuriya came after Sirisena announced on Sunday that parliament would reconvene on November 14, a week later than he had promised.
The Speaker said Sirisena had gone back on previous commitments to recall parliament on November 7.
In the statement released on Monday, Jayasuriya said 116 Members of Parliament have submitted a petition to him stating that the changes made in Parliament recently by President Sirisena are "unconstitutional and undemocratic."
Their call for Parliament to be summoned immediately was also "extremely reasonable", he said.
"In the name of justice and fair play I have to declare my position to the world that when a majority has pointed out that rights of the MPs have been usurped by preventing the lawful convening of Parliament," Jayasuriya said.
"A majority in parliament has requested that all changes made have been unconstitutional and against the traditions. They have urged me to recognise the status quo which prevailed prior to these changes.
"As such I have to recognise the status quo which prevailed before until the new party would be able to prove their majority," Jayasuriya said, making it clear that he wants a parliamentary floor test.
As a result, Rajapaksa will not be given the Prime Minister seat in Parliament as the current government members will need to sit in the opposition seats, reports said.
Sirisena suspended parliamentary proceedings until November 16 after abruptly firing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and replacing him with Rajapaksa, a controversial former president, on October 26.
The Speaker had expected parliament to reconvene on November 7. However, Sirisena Sunday issued notice to reconvene Parliament on November 14.
Jayasuriya said he had made several requests for Parliament to be reconvened early in order to resolve the political crisis.
The civil society organisations have demanded that Jayasuriya re-summon parliament on his own. Jayasuriya, however, refused to do so saying he was powerless unless the president consented.
The decision announced last night by President Sirisena to summon the Parliament two days ahead of its scheduled opening won't lead to resolving of the constitutional crisis, ousted prime minister Wickremsinghe's United National Party (UNP) senior Vajira Abeywardena said on Monday.
"We can't treat November 14 as the date on which we can settle this issue. The law has been violated. They have delayed the date for reconvening parliament so that they could buy over MPs. The public must protest the way the MPs are being brought for money," Abeywardena said.
Wickremsinghe's UNP on Monday said Sirisena's decision to summon parliament on November 14 will not lead to the resolving of the constitutional crisis.
Analysts say Sirisena's move to suspend parliament to engineer defections from the UNP and its allies appears to have succeeded.
New prime minister Rajapaksa's parliamentary strength has now been bolstered to 105 from 96 when the crisis began.
The UNP has lost eight of its legislators while one member from the main Tamil party TNA has defected. Rajapaksa needs 113 to prove his majority in the 225-member House.
Wickremesinghe who branded Sirisena's October 26 action to sack him a constitutional coup maintains that he holds majority. The UNP has handed over a motion of no trust against Rajapaksa.
Meanwhile, both parties organised public protests on Monday. Thousands of supporters of Rajapaksa headed for the capital to rally in support of his nomination as the prime minister.
The political crisis in Sri Lanka began after Sirisena's broader front United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) announced that it has decided to quit the unity government with Wickremesinghe's UNP.
The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghe's support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
