Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena called an all-party meeting on Sunday evening in a bid to end the political crisis in the country. However, Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party refused to attend the meeting, adaderana.lk reported.
“President Sirisena will chair a meeting of representatives of political parties in Parliament today,” his office said in a statement. “The president has called this meeting in order to end the current political unrest and conflict situation and to allow the normal functioning of Parliament.” The meeting was scheduled to begin at the presidential secretariat in Colombo at 5 pm.
Last month, Sirisena ousted Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and replaced him with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The president also suspended Parliament till November 16 to prevent a vote from being held. Though Sirisena later lifted the suspension and said the Parliament would reconvene on November 14, he dissolved it again and called snap elections on January 5. However, the Supreme Court stayed Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament.
On November 14, Jayasuriya said a no-confidence motion had been passed against Rajapaksa and his government. The next day, Parliament was supposed to repeat the floor test but the proceedings were disrupted. On Friday, parliamentarians broke furniture and attacked officers in the House. A few ministers loyal to Rajapaksa reportedly threw chilli powder at their rivals and the police.
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