SL parliament urged to order media not to refer Rajapaksa's regime as lawful

A senior Sri Lankan lawmaker Tuesday urged Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to direct the media not to refer controversially appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime as the lawful government of the island nation.

Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the main Muslim minority party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, urged Speaker Jayasuriya that "the print and electronic media are continuing to recognise MP Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Please issue an order that the media should not give recognition to an illegal government".

Jayasuriya has officially conveyed that the House does not recognise Rajapaksa as the legal prime minister until he proved his majority in the House.

The island nation is witnessing a political crisis since President Maithripapala Sirisena's controversial move to sack prime minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe and install Rajapaksa in his place on October 26.

Sirisena later dissolved Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election. The Supreme Court overturned Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls.

Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa claim to be the prime ministers. Wickremesinghe says his dismissal is invalid because he still holds a majority in the 225-member Parliament.

Rajapaksa's government continued to boycott the assembly sessions for the second consecutive day Tuesday.

Nimal Siripala de Silva, a minister in the disputed government, has said that the government would not recognise Jayasuriya as the assembly speaker.

"He says there is no government, no prime minister then how can the parliament function," Silva said.

Sirisena's subsequent order to sack parliament in order to hold a snap election on 5 January 2019has been temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court. The final ruling is to be issued early next month.

As many as 122 parliamentarians of Wickeremesinghe's United National Party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance last Friday filed a petition in the Court of Appeal challenging Rajapaksa's authority as the prime minister.

Chief Justice Nalin Perera appointed a seven judge bench which decided to take up the petition for consideration on November 30 and December 03.