Speaker orders MP elect in prison to be brought to Parliament

By Saman Indrajith

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, yesterday, ordered the Prisons Department to enable Ratnapura district MP elect Premalal Jayasekara to attend Parliament.

The Prisons Department had earlier been ordered to allow Jayasekara to attend Parliament.

However Jayasekara, who is currently on death row, had not been brought to Parliament.

 SLPP Colombo District MP Premanath C. Dolawatte, raising a point of order, told the Speaker that the people of Ratnapura were deprived of representation in Parliament when their MP Jayasekera was denied the opportunity to attend parliamentary sessions.

 “Jayasekera polled over 140,000 preferential votes at the last general election. Following his sentence, he appealed to the Court of Appeal against the sentence. He is not allowed to come to this House. There is no court order preventing him from coming to Parliament. There is the possibility of him becoming not guilty at the end of the Appeal court case. You have powers to issue an order to the head of the Prisons Department to bring him to Parliament. Suppose he will win the case at the Appeal Court and thereafter he would be allowed to attend sessions. But until then, the people who voted for him are not represented here. I bring to the notice of the Chair a ruling given by former Speaker Anura

Bandaranaike on a similar issue on June 20, 2001 that Parliament process is not bound by a court order.

I call on you not on behalf of Premalal Jayasekera but on behalf of Ratnapura people who voted for him. You have powers to bring him here and we hope you will take actions necessary for the purpose,” MP Dolawatte said.

MP SB Dissanayake said that an MP in remand prison had the right to attend parliament sessions. “There has been precedent. I availed myself of that opportunity. Therefore MP elect Jayasekera should be allowed to come to Parliament,” Dissanayake said

According to the Parliament Secretariat sources, the Sergeant-at-Arms of Parliament had informed the Commissioner General of Prisons to make arrangements to facilitate the MP to attend Parliamentary sittings.

Speaker Abeywardena said that his office had not been informed of the appeal of Jayasekera. “Not permitting him to come to Parliament is wrong. Therefore I order the prison administration to bring him to parliament,” the Speaker said.