Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne adjourned Parliament for 10 minutes today, following a tense situation.
Parliament was adjourned after the opposition staged a protest in the chamber against the Speaker’s decision on the No-Confidence Motion submitted against the Deputy Minister of Defence, Aruna Jayasekara.
The protesting opposition MPs demanded that the Attorney General’s advice and other reports pertaining to the matter be tabled in Parliament.
A tense situation arose when Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake attempted to make a statement on the matter, with several opposition MPs disrupting his speech.
The Speaker then adjourned the Parliament and left his seat, even after which opposition MPs were seen staging a protest in the centre of the Chamber.
The opposition comes after the Speaker yesterday announced that there is no provision in the Constitution for a No-Confidence Motion against a Deputy Minister, and as such, the motion is not in order and cannot be accepted in its present form.
The No-Confidence Motion against Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara was submitted to the Speaker by a group of opposition MPs in August this year.
The No-Confidence Motion was submitted, citing serious concerns over his alleged involvement and conflict of interest in the investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks. (Newswire)