• Blames Opposition for trying to work outside the order book

Refuting the allegations made by the Opposition political parties that he has acted in support of the ruling party during Parliamentary sessions, Speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena yesterday (09) said that he has only fulfilled his duties in accordance with the Order Book (Parliamentary Business).

The main Parliamentary Opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and several other opposition groups had, by way of a letter, urged the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to act to ensure the survival and further strengthening of sound parliamentary traditions, claiming that there are acute concerns regarding the behaviour and attitudes of Abeywardena in relation to conducting the business of Parliament.

The Opposition had resorted to the criticism of the Speaker, mainly due to the incident of several Opposition MPs not being granted opportunity to speak during the critical debate on the Domestic Debt Restructuring (DDR) programme on 01 July.

Speaking to the Daily Morning on the allegations, the Speaker said that he has always acted in accordance with the Order Paper related to each Parliamentary session. "All I have to say is that I have followed the Order Book. What they (Opposition) want is to go off the Order Book list, and allow their MPs to speak, which is not possible. If any Parliamentary session needs to be continued beyond the scheduled time, both the ruling party and Opposition need to come to an agreement. If there is no such agreement, the session should stop as scheduled, and that is what I did." The speaker explained.

 He added that he had inquired from the Leader of the House and Minister, Dr. Susil Premajayantha as to whether the ruling party would agree to extend the scheduled time for the debate on 01 July, but the ruling party had not agreed to do so. "I asked the Government, and they said they do not want to extend the time. I have no right to make any intervention beyond it. I cannot make decisions in support of the Government as well as Opposition. If both parties agreed to extend time beyond 07.30 p.m., I would have allowed it."

The debate on the DDR programme was held in Parliament from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. on 01 July, and was followed by a vote. Following the debate, the Opposition had claimed that Abeywardena had acted in a partisan manner without allocating adequate time for Opposition MPs to speak during the debate. When contacted by The Daily Morning to inquire about the Opposition's allegation, the Secretary General of the Parliament, Kushani Rohanadheera said earlier that not only Opposition MPs, but also several Government MPs had not been able to speak during the debate.