SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka’s “sacked” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told the BBC he has the support of parliament, as the island nation grapples with an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
Last week the president sacked Wickremesinghe and his cabinet and suspended parliament, appointing former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new PM, reported BBC.
But Wickremesinghe refuses to leave office, saying the move is illegal.
The crisis has already sparked protests and deadly violence.
“I still remain the prime minister and I have the confidence of the majority of members of this house,” Wickremesinghe told the BBC from his official residence, Temple Trees, a grand, white, colonial-era bungalow, which has, over time, become a symbol of political power in Sri Lanka.
“The constitution states that the president must appoint as prime minister the person who commands the confidence of parliament and I am the person who has that. We have asked for the summoning of parliament so I can prove my majority in the house,” he said.
Wickremesinghe’s party has demanded that the house be convened soon and Rajapaksa has suggested this could happen at the start of next week. No date has yet been confirmed.
This is an extraordinary situation for a nation that saw decades of a brutal civil war, and which now has two people claiming to run the government.