Sri Lankan PM’s ousting called nonviolent coup

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker has called the president’s sacking of the prime minister to bring a former leader back to power a nonviolent coup d’etat.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya is a key figure in the political standoff that started on October 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe is refusing to vacate his prime ministerial residence and insists he remains in office until voted out by parliament. The president had suspended Parliament, a move Rajapaksa’s opponents say is aimed at preventing it from rejecting his return to power.

‘‘The entire series of events can only be described as a coup, albeit one without the use of tanks and guns,’’ Speaker Jayasuriya said in a letter to diplomats and foreign missions.

Jayasuriya said the majority of parliamentarians viewed the change in prime minister as unconstitutional.