US adds to global pressure on Sirisena

Ousted Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday demanded parliament be allowed to choose between the two rivals to run the country’s government amid warnings that the constitutional crisis could become a “bloodbath”.

With tensions already heightened by the killing of one activist, the United States added to international pressure on President Maithripala Sirisena to annul his suspension of parliament to end the power struggle.

Defiant

Wickremesinghe remained defiant at the prime minister’s residence which he has not left since being sacked on Friday, when Sirisena called in former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse to take over the government.

Rajapakse started his rival duties in a low key ceremony and his aides said he could name some ministers yesterday.

“At the moment there is a vacuum, no one is in full charge of the country,” Wickremesinghe told reporters at the residence, which is surrounded by over 1,000 of his supporters and chanting Buddhist monks.