Sri Lankan opposition leaders request Rajapaksa to reconvene dissolved parliament

Sri Lankan opposition parties on Monday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to reconvenethe dissolved parliament while pledging cooperation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a joint statement signed by Party Leaders of the Opposition, including United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader Rauff Hakeem and Leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Rishad Bathiudeen noted that against the backdrop of a public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps taken by Governments to control it, a range of new challenges have emerged in Sri Lanka as well.

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"Getting appropriate and new legislation passed in order to meet the public health crisis and obtaining parliamentary sanction to the utilization of monies from the consolidated fund are some such important and urgent functions of parliament," the statement asserted.

It urged the president to usehis discretionary powers under Article 70 (7) of the Constitution in order to tackle the challenges faced by the counrty due to coronavirus and ''respond positively to this offer of responsible cooperation by us at this critical time and revoke the proclamation dated 2 March 2020 dissolving parliament so that all of us can jointly fight to eradicate this virus."

President Rajapaksa on March 2 dissolved the Parliament, six months ahead of schedule, and called a snap election on April 25 to elect a new 225-member house.

The joint statementalso noted that if further spreading of the pandemic is not decisively halted in the coming few weeks, the country will face the risk of the prevailing public health crisis being compounded by crisis situations in the economic, social, and political spheres too.

The statement followed Rajapaksa's assertion made at a meeting with the powerful Buddhist clergy on April 25 where the president told the monks that he would not at any cost recall the dissolved parliament.

However, the election commission last week postponed the parliamentary elections by nearly two months to June 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak in the island nation.

The new date clashed with the constitutional imperative that the new parliament has to meet within three months since its dissolution, that is,June 2.

The opposition argues that Rajapaksa has no power to draw public finances after April 30, the date up to which the dismissed parliament had approved expenditure. Therefore, the action to recall parliament would allow the governance proper and lawful in compliance with the constitution.