Thousands demands early summoning of Sri Lankan parliament

In Sri Lanka, thousands of people took part in protest in capital Colombo against the sacking of Ranil Wickremsinghe as prime minister and to demand early convening of Parliament.

The protestors, carrying placards and shouting slogans, blocked the roads near Wickremsinghe’s official residence, where several of his party MPs addressed the gathering.

Wickremsinghe said people did not vote for President Sirisena to act in this manner and that they will resist what the president has done.

He has demanded that parliament meet so that he can prove he has majority backing.

Meanwhile, parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya today requested President to convene parliament on Friday to resolve the on-going crisis precipitated by his sudden decision of replacing Ranil Wickremsinghe and appointing Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime minister.

Earlier, the speaker had written to the President asking him to convene parliament as early as possible based on a petition submitted to him by over 125 MPs.

However, a spokesman of new government said that proroguing Parliament is prerogative of President and Wickremsinghe can challenge his removal in court.