Want my job back: Sacked PM tells Lankan president

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s political crisis escalated on Friday with the sacked prime minister demanding his job back shortly after passing another no-confidence motion against his controversial successor amid unprecedented rioting in Parliament.

The Indian Ocean nation has been paralysed since October 26 when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as premier and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse.

With a second no-trust vote against Rajapakse on Friday despite raucous scenes that involved his supporters throwing chilli powder at their opponents, Wickremesinghe demanded the restoration of status quo prior to October 26.

“Let the status quo come back,” Wickremesinghe told Colombo-based foreign correspondents at his Temple Trees residence where he remained holed up after refusing to accept his sacking three weeks ago. “The country needs stability. That is the main issue.”

He said he was also ready to work with Sirisena despite their bitter personality clash that triggered the unprecedented constitutional crisis last month.

There was no immediate comment from Sirisena.

On Friday, speaker Karu Jayasuriya was blocked from taking his chair for an hour by a group of legislators backing Rajapakse.

Finally, Jayasuriya entered the red-carpeted chamber protected by dozens of unarmed officers and parliamentary staff.

MPs took away the ornate ceremonial chair, but staff carried in an ordinary office chair as a makeshift replacement. However, rioters grabbed that chair and broke it into pieces.

“We haven’t had a situation where the speaker was prevented from entering the chamber,” former sergeant-at-arms Wijaya Palliyaguruge told AFP. “This is the first time the speaker had to come in with police protection.”