A ‘Coup without guns’: Speaker to diplomats

CONTRARY TO ALL NORMS OF, DECENCY, DEMOCRACY...

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had called President Maithripala Sirisena’s sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to bring former President Mahinda Rajapaksa back to the office a non-violent coup, the Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

It said:

“The entire series of events can only be described as a coup, albeit one without the use of tanks and guns,” Speaker Jayasuriya has said in a letter dated November 5 to diplomats and foreign missions, adding the “entire matter was pre-planned”.

Mr Jayasuriya says the majority of Parliamentarians view the change in Prime Minister as unconstitutional.

In the letter, he said some of them were offered bribes and Ministerial positions to support the new Government.

He accused Sirisena of acting “contrary to all norms of transparency, decency, democracy

He accused Sirisena of acting “contrary to all norms of transparency, decency, democracy and good governance, and contrary to the constitution which he has sworn to uphold and defend

and good governance, and contrary to the constitution which he has sworn to uphold and defend.”

Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official had told Reuters that some foreign envoys had said they would only recognize Rajapaksa as Prime Minister after he proved he had the support of the majority in Parliament.”