I don't agree with Wijeyadasa's views: Speaker

11 December 2017 08:07 pm

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said today he had informed MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe that he did not agree with the matters raised by the MP on the constitutionality of the Constitutional Assembly.

The MP who was removed from his portfolio a couple of months ago, had written to the Speaker requesting him to abolish the Constitutional Assembly and take steps to rectify the error he claims to have been made by Parliament to postpone the provincial council elections regardless of the Supreme Court ruling.

In his letter, Mr. Rajapakshe said the decision to appoint a constitutional assembly on March 9, 2016 was unlawful on the basis that the people had not given a mandate to set up a constitutional assembly because no party had secured a majority at the 2015 general elections.

“The traditional concept adopted by the whole world is that pledges given by a political party at an election does not hold true when that party has not secured a majority in the legislature," he said in the letter.

The Speaker said he conveyed his stance to Mr. Rajapakshe.

House Leader Lakshman Kiriella said Mr. Rajapakshe should have made a statement in the House without sending letters to the Speaker. “One should not write love letters to the Speaker," he said in lighter vein. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)