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Rajapaksa prorogues Parliament

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to prorogue Parliament late on Tuesday night has raised eyebrows all round. Though the Government has termed the decision a “routine matter with no special reasons,” the opposition parties have attributed ulterior motives to the move.

Under the Constitution, as and when Parliament is prorogued the Standing Committees are automatically dissolved and all pending bills lapse.

The proroguing of Parliament just three days before the Eastern Provincial Council election, scheduled for May 10, has left observers wondering about the real motives behind the decision.

The opposition has charged that the President prorogued Parliament is to cover up for any “irregularities” in the May 10 election and pave the way for the re-constitution of parliamentary committees in his favour.

Since the present Parliament came into vogue in 2004, over 90 members from different parties have changed loyalties. Most of them have either joined the government or declared their allegiance to the President.

Article 70 (1) of the Constitution states: “The President may, from time to time, by Proclamation summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament. A Proclamation proroguing Parliament shall fix a date for the next session, not being more than two months after the date of the Proclamation.”

The opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, at a news conference here denounced the move as the “end of whatever democracy was left” in the country.

The Janatha Vimukthi Perumana and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress have also disapproved of the move.

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