Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said a large number of foreign diplomats, foreign media including Al Jazeera and foreign
correspondents were eagerly following the hideous scenes in the House.
He told a news briefing that yesterday was one of the darkest days in the history of parliamentary democracy in Sri Lanka and pointed out that had not acted according to the compromise reached between President Maithripala Sirisena and the alliance led by the UNF on Thursday.
“The agreement was to remove the first paragraph in the no-confidence motion that said the removal of Ranil Wickremesinghe from the premiership and the dissolution of Parliament were unconstitutional. Secondly, the handing of the NCM to the Speaker, deciding on the date of the debate and vote should have been done in accordance with parliamentary Standing Orders and traditions. But nothing of this was done yesterday and this is why the government members protested,” Mr. Jayasekara said attempting to justify what happened in Parliament yesterday.
Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said the government MPs who participated at the party leaders meeting pointed out to the Speaker that if the NCM was to be taken up yesterday proper procedures had to be followed as agreed upon at the meeting with the President.
“The Speaker did not agree to any of those demands. That was the start of the fracas in Parliament. The government MPs are not responsible for what happened in Parliament yesterday. We did not see a NCM. We demanded that the NCM must remain in the Order Book for at least five days for us to study the NCM. This also was ignored,” the minister said. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
more>>>
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Darkest-day-in-Parliamentary-history-Dayasiri-158507.html
