• President Gotabaya Rajapaksa suspends Parliament till 18 January
• Takes off to Singapore on unscheduled visit but insiders say for routine health check
• Twin move fuels widespread political speculation
• Analysts point to three scenarios

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at midnight prorogued Parliament till 18 January and took off to Singapore on an unscheduled visit, sparking widespread speculation and theories on what could be in store.

Through an Extraordinary Gazette notification dated 12 December, President Rajapaksa suspended the Parliament. 

“I do by this proclamation prorogue Parliament with effect from midnight of the Twelfth day of December, Two Thousand and Twenty One and hereby fix the Eighteenth day of January Two Thousand and Twenty Two at 10 am for the commencement of the next session and summon parliament to meet in the Chambers of Parliament, Sri Jayewardenepura,” stated 

the Gazette notification.

The new date comes after the Committee on Parliamentary Business chaired by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena last week agreed to start New Year’s sittings from 11 January.

The President also took off ahead of a key Cabinet meeting yesterday amidst the worsening foreign exchange crisis and other burning socio-economic issues. However, insiders said the President had to leave for a routine health check-up but officials declined to deny or confirm. 

Though the President has the power to prorogue Parliament under the Article 70 of the Constitution, the move took many by surprise. 

Analysts referred to three possibilities. One was it enables the President to address the Parliament via a ceremonial sitting. The recess will enable the President to take stock so as to better reflect the current and emerging economic scenario and articulate tangible measures he and the Government were taking to improve the conditions for greater stability followed by a take-off post-COVID.  

Another possibility was post-proroguing, the President can reconstitute the Parliamentary Oversight Committees including one on public enterprises (COPE). Several sessions of it including on the Board of Investment Chairman and Directors who were appointed by the President, sparked political controversies. 

The Chairman and three Board of Directors of BOI resigned early this month over differences of opinion on the findings of COPE chaired by MP Prof. Charitha Herath as well as unionised employees. 

The third reason speculated was proroguing of Parliament to work out total transformation of the future governance including a new political alliance.  

The much-touted Cabinet meeting on Monday was rumoured to discuss the Government’s final stand on whether to engage with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or not to ease the balance of payments crisis. However, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal tweeted that media stories originated by an Opposition politician that the Cabinet has summoned to discuss IMF assistance are totally fake. “This is part of their misinformation campaign to cause uncertainty,” charged Cabraal. 

The Cabinet was also speculated to take up the controversial Government deal with US firm New Fortress Energy on Yugadanawi power plant but this too was denied by officials. 

Mahinda to chair special meeting today