Political rally in support of deposed Sri Lankan premier brings chaos to capital’s streets
- Protesters had initially planned to drive to the parliament speaker’s residence, urge him to defy the president and lift the assembly suspension
A rally of hundreds of cars carrying supporters of Sri Lanka’s deposed prime minister brought chaos to Colombo’s streets on Thursday as they demanded that parliament be reopened.
A noisy cavalcade of motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cars and vans took loyalists of ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to a rally to hear speeches slamming the president for sacking the head of government last month.
President Maithripala Sirisena named former president Mahinda Rajapakse as the new prime minister in a shock move on October 26, and suspended parliament so neither has won a vote of confidence.
The rival prime ministers have now spent nearly two weeks at loggerheads, and the move – which has been described as illegal by opponents – has triggered a constitutional crisis.
Protesters had initially planned to drive to the residence of parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya to urge him to defy the president and lift the assembly suspension.