President to consider reconvening of P’ment early following Speaker’s request

• President agreed to consider request after Cabinet is appointed – President’s Secretariat sources
• Speaker’s Office sources say positive response to request to reconvene as earlyas tomorrow
• President’s request to facilitate MR as PM during opening P’ment sessions receives positive response from Karu 

By Chathuri Dissanayake 

The much-anticipated meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and Speaker Karu Jayasuriya last evening ended indecisive after over one hour of ‘cordial dialogue’.

The President attentively heard the Speaker out and gave assurances to consider reconvening the Parliament before 16 November, a source within the President’s Secretariat told Daily FT. 

The meeting comes in the wake of Jayasuriya’s calls to the President to reconvene the prorogued Parliament to solve the deepening constitutional crisis in the country. Jayasuriya, on Tuesday, wrote to President Sirisena to reconvene Parliament after receiving requests from over 125 Parliamentarians, urging him to take immediate steps to safeguard their rights and privileges and to establish a majority in Parliament.  The Speaker met the President yesterday to reiterate this request, outlining the issues that have surfaced due to prorogation of Parliament.  During the discussion, the Speaker had requested Sirisena to reconvene the Parliament “as early as Monday or Tuesday”, sources from the Speaker’s Office confirmed, adding that the response was “positive”. 

 Sirisena has said that he will consider reconvening the Parliament before 16 November after all Cabinet appointments are completed, a source within the President’s Secretariat said. 

The President in turn has requested of the Speaker that newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa be facilitated to carry out his functions when Parliament convenes, sources said. 

The Speaker, responding positively to the request, has said that he will act as necessary as his intention is to ensure that the process is followed without any conflict and upholding the honour of everyone involved.