Kiriella piqued by Speaker ignoring him

By Saman Indrajith

SJB Kandy District MP and Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella, yesterday, said that the Speaker of the House had not recognised him when he had attempted to raise a point of order, prior to the swearing in of MP Premalal Jayasekara on Tuesday.

MP Kiriella: “Yesterday I tried to raise a point of order on behalf of the Opposition. It was not about anything personal. However, the Speaker did not recognise me. The Secretary’s office too ignored me; they didn’t even look at me. It was only after the swearing in was complete that I was allowed to raise the point of order. That is wrong. The tradition of the House is when the Chief Opposition Whip raises a point of order, you have to give him an opportunity to speak. After I spoke you could have taken whatever the decision. You gave me the chance only after the swearing in. That is against the Parliament tradition.”

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said: “Swearing in of any MP is a solemn moment.

It is not appropriate to raise questions.

MP Kiriella: “You did not know what I was going to say. It was a point of order.”

However, during the incident Leader of the House Minister Dinesh Gunawardena pointed out that as per the Standing Orders, the MPs could not raise points of order when the Speaker was making an announcement.

The Speaker questioned what kind of a point of order could be raised when an MP was taking oaths.

SJB MP Harin Fernando expressed his concerns about the Opposition’s protest against MP Jayasekara taking oaths on Tuesday (08).  “We did not talk about a judgment. It was you who read out the judgment. All I did was to read out the rest of the judgment to the House. After that, Minister Mahindananda requested you to remove those parts from Hansard. I don’t think that is necessary. We spoke as per the Standing Orders. We hope you will protect all MPs in the House.  We hope that what we spoke in the House concerning this matter would not be removed from the Hansard.”