House sessions continue for seven hours

Parliament sessions continued for seven hours for the first time yesterday since the recent political crisis.

The House was debating an adjournment motion moved by Vijitha Hearth saying the constitutional coup should be defeated while the current political crisis should be resolved bringing normalcy to the country.

SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem charged that the Muslims MPS were being insulted by trying to influence them unduly to make them join the new government illegally.“We had to seek divine help in Mecca to overcome the influence which we were subjected to by those who instated a government in an illegal manner,” Mr. Hakeem said.

Leader of opposition R Sampanthan said the whole crisis should have been resolved in a simple manner.“the matter would have been resolved if the tradition of seeking the confidence was practised by the newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa when he took over. “Mr. Rajapaksa could have continued if he had the majority in the House and withdrawn if he did not,” he said.

MP Harsha De Silva proposed that an amendment should be brought to the constitution to ban crossovers.