In Sri Lanka, leader of Joint opposition parliamentary group Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena has said that they are opposed to speaker’s decision for post of opposition leader and are mulling all options to challenge it.
Mr. Dinesh said that the speaker’s decision is biased and contradictory in nature. He ‘refuted Speaker’s assertion that his decision is based on conventions in other countries including India.
Mr. Gunawardena said India does not provide the opposition leader status to a group having less than 10 percent MPs of total house strength. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya last week decided to keep the leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr. R Sampanthan for the post of Opposition Leader.
TNA has only 16 MPs in the 225 member house while Joint opposition (JO) led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse has total of 70 MPs. However, most of the JO MPs belong to a coalition which is part of unity government in the country.
Meanwhile, leader of the house in Parliament Mr. Lakshman Kiriella has said that no one can challenge the decision of the speaker in a court.
Mr. Kiriella, who is also minister of public enterprise quoted an earlier decision of Parliament that the judiciary cannot contest a decision taken by the legislature.
