Sri Lanka: All-party meeting ends with no solution for political crisis

TIL Desk/World/Colombo/ The all-party meeting called by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday ended with no solution for the ongoing political crisis in the island nation. The meeting was attended by former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and representatives of his party as well as the unconstitutionally ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was joined by the representatives of the United National Front along with representatives of other political parties.

Former cabinet minister and UNP parliamentarian Harsha de Silva said that the meeting concluded with no breakthrough as Sirisena suggested that the minority government headed by Rajapska continues to hold the office. “They want to drag impasse along giving lame excuses of procedure,”  Silva  says. Sirisena and the members of the minority government have maintained their stance that the two no-confidence motions passed in Parliament against Rajapaksa did not follow proper procedure.

Sri Lanka tumbled into a constitutional crisis after President Sirisena ousted then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and named Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister. Sirisena further suspended the country’s Parliamentary proceedings until November 16. However, on November 5, the Sri Lankan President announced to reconvene the Parliament on November 14, amid rising demands by legislators of the state to end the political crisis in the island nation as soon as possible.