Lanka prez’s all-party meet fails to end political crisis

COLOMBO: An all-party meeting called by Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena failed to make any breakthrough on Sunday to end the raging political crisis set off by his controversial decision to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last month.
Sirisena on Sunday called an all-party meeting which ended without making breakthrough, Wickremsinghe’s United National Party (UNP) said. This was the first time that Sirisena, Wickremsinghe and Rajapaksa met face to face since the crisis erupted on October 26. “We told Rajapaska that if the Speaker’s rulings are wrong, they can move a motion to challenge it and get it passed. Response from President Sirisena was nil,” Lakshman Kiriella, a UNP leader, said after the talks which lasted for over 2 hours.

JVP or the People’s Liberation Front stayed away from the meeting. Speaker Karu Jayasuriyaalso boycotted it.

UNP meanwhile asked Facebook to safeguard the identity of its supporters on the social media platform, fearing information sharing with what it calls the country’s “illegal” government can lead to a crackdown against the users.