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Opposition parties in Sri Lanka on Thursday continued to lash out at the presidential proclamation to prorogue parliament. They said it was a devious and unethical move to stifle the rights of the elected members and subvert democratic process.
While United Nationalist Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe described the prorogation as "the first step towards dictatorship and a sidelining of the democratic framework," Sri Lankan Muslim Congress, which earlier supported the government, said the order was a "devious and unethical move to stifle the rights of MPs".
The local papers reported of serious objections among cabinet ministers and parliamentarians over the president's action of proroguing parliament without consulting them.
The announcement of the referendum caught many ministers unawares and some of them even walked out of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Even Speaker Anura Bandaraniake was taken by surprise at the decision of the president, one paper said.
SLMC leader and former minister Rauf Hakeem, who recently crossed over to the opposition, asked the president to rescind the decision and act according to accepted norms and practice.
On holding a referendum on the need for a new constitution, Hakeem said the government resorted to the idea of enacting a new constitution whenever it faced a political crisis.
"In any case, the outcome of the verdict of the people is not binding on the government. It also raises the issue of bypassing the provisions of the constitution in attempting to enact a new one," he said.
Ranil Wickremesinghe said the move came at a time when a no-confidence motion had been tabled in parliament. Instead of calling for the resignation of the minority government, the president had resorted to prorogation to cling to power, he said
115 opposition MPs had signed a petition to the speaker, asking that the motion be taken up on July 18 for a debate and vote, he added.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which is the third largest party in parliament with ten members, said by proroguing parliament, the president had shown her government's inability to face the no-confidence motion.
"The government had no moral right to continue in office after it failed to face the no-confidence motion in a civilised manner," he said.
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