Rajitha says over 100 signatures urging P’ment to reconvene

By Chathuri Dissanayake

The United National Party yesterday claimed that over 100 parliamentarians had signed on to lobby for Parliamentto be reconvened.

“We have signed the document urging the Speaker to convene Parliament as soon as possible,” Parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne said, speaking at a media briefing held in Temple Trees last evening.

The UNP strongman was confident of showing the numbers in support of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe when Parliament was reconvened. However, he was not able to reveal what the party would do if the President did not heed the requests made by parliamentarians.

Senaratne also said that the party had collected close to 80 signatures to impeach President Maithripala Sirisena.

Nevertheless, he emphasised that their focus now was to have Parliament reconvene to re-establish party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s position as the Prime Minister.

Speculating that Sirisena had been misled by those giving him legal advice, he highlighted that the President had violated the Constitution by appointing former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister.

“You cannot do what they used to do after the 19th Amendment was introduced to the Constitution. What the President has done is throw the country into complete anarchy like never before. He was voted in before to bring in law and order and he has brought complete anarchy,” he said, insisting that the rightful Prime Minister of the country was Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Referring to the death of one person involved in the clash at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation where parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunga was held hostage by the ministry’s trade unionists, Senaratne said it was just the first sign of the times to come.

“Things will be even more difficult for people as days pass and there is complete chaos and confusion in the country. This crisis will throw the country and the people into a lot of hardship,” he warned.

Responding to comments made by President Sirisena, Senaratne claimed that the bond scam was not the first fraud that occurred in the country but it was the first time a sitting government had appointed a commission to investigate such an incident during its own term.

“It wasn’t the President who protested against Mahendran’s appointment, it was me. This is not the first bond fraud in Sri Lankan history. Earlier governments did not take proper action against previous frauds but during the bond fraud the Government took action, brought government ministers to the commission. The PM went to the commission as a sitting PM for the first time in Sri Lankan history,” he asserted.

Drawing examples from Germany and Austria, where national governmentshave been formed, Senaratne also highlighted that disagreements were a common feature of such partnerships but stressed the importance of working together, urging the President to heed the call to reconvene Parliament.