Fresh chaos in Sri Lanka’s parliament as chilli powder and chairs thrown by MPs
- It follows a mass brawl on Thursday when rival lawmakers exchanged blows after the speaker announced the country had no prime minister or government
- The political crisis began on October 26, when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sacked and replaced with a former strongman
Police escorted Speaker Karu Jayasuriya into the chamber and held boards around him to protect him from being hit by the angry Rajapaksa loyalists, who did not allow him to sit in the speaker’s chair.
An ordinary office chair was brought in as a makeshift replacement, but rioting MPs grabbed that too, breaking it into pieces that were then used as projectiles to attack rivals and police.
Standing in a corner with a human shield of khaki-clad constables, the speaker, in his usual black and gold robes, used a wireless microphone to take a voice vote on a revised no-confidence motion against Rajapakse. He then adjourned the house until Monday
Rajapakse lost a similar vote on Wednesday, but refused to step down saying that vote was not taken properly. His party had acknowledged that they did not command a majority in the 225-member assembly despite attempts to engineer defections.