Speaker doesn’t have power to convene Parliament early – Former Speaker
Posted on October 31st, 2018
Courtesy The Daily News
Former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera yesterday said that the Speaker doesn’t have power to convene Parliament, when it stands prorogued by the President.
He said that the Speaker doesn’t have power to summon Parliament for an earlier date than the date fixed in the Proclamation proroguing Parliament. Perera added President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a Gazzette Notification proroguing Parliament and the Speaker doesn’t have the power to summon Parliament when it stands prorogued.
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga prorogued Parliament at that instance, I expressed my opinion and that can also be referred to,” Perera said.
He added that he doesn’t have any personal issues with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. A Parliamentarian has been appointed to the post of Prime Minister,” he said.
The President has prorogued Parliament and the Constitution is the supreme document of the people. There is no issue in appointing a member in a party which commands a majority. The government should protect the sovereignty and rights of the people.
However, the Speaker doesn’t have the power to summon Parliament for an earlier date than the date fixed in the Proclamation proroguing Parliament.
Only President can reconvene Parliament
When Parliament is prorogued, only the President has the power to convene Parliament, while the Speaker does not have that power, former Law College Principal and Constitutional Lawyer President’s Counsel Dr. Jayatissa de Costa and former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera said.
Once Parliament is prorogued, only the President has the power to convene Parliament prior to November 16. The Presidential Proclamation states that Parliament would be convened on November 16, 2018. No one else but the President has the power to change that. Article 70 was substituted by the 19th Amendment and accordingly, the President may, by proclamation, prorogue and dissolve Parliament and now under sub-article 70(3) only the President has the power to reconvene Parliament prior to November 16,” Dr. Costa said.
October 31st, 2018 at 10:12 pm
Super robber Run-nil and the house speaker both are same. They are both western stooges. They are both pretenders and coup plotters. The worst house speaker in the parliament history. Maha Sanga should not be fooled by these two unpatriotic western backed stooges. They should not entertain these two in any temple. You heard the comments of Gangarama prelate the other day. Those Buddhist monks knows the truth about all the happenings in political circle today. We all should condemn the acts of these two traitors. People must reject politicians like these in the next general election. I hope people will chose the best of best without going behind usual party politics. We should think of our country first and select those who loves this land and work for the benefit of the people not uneducated corrupt political Mafia. We have to change ourselves and think of the future of this country. Enough is enough. These dirty politicians played with our lives and the country for so long. We need to start new and think new and work hard to make our little island country called “Sri Lanka” great again.