[ad_1]
The president of the Sri Lankan Parliament on Sunday urged the country's president to preserve the rights of the sacked prime minister in a context of growing political crisis in this island country of South Asia.
President Karu Jayasuriya said in a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena that the continued suspension of parliament would have "serious and undesirable consequences".
Sirisena on Friday dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his cabinet and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe claimed that he could prove his majority support in Parliament.
On Saturday, Sirisena suspended Parliament apparently to give Rajapaksa time to gather enough support to survive any vote of no confidence.
Opposition lawmakers, supporting the new prime minister, asked Wickremesinghe to leave his official residence or face forced eviction.
Hundreds of Wickremesinghe supporters continued to gather outside his official home on Sunday for the second consecutive day, waving party flags and denouncing Sirisena and Rajapaksa. Buddhist monks practiced religious rites to invoke blessings on Wickremesinghe.
Jayasuriya said in his letter that he received "an application for the protection of rights and privileges" from Wickremesinghe "until another person emerges from Parliament as having gained the confidence of Parliament". He added that the request came from two senior lawmakers of the skeptical Prime Minister's party.
"This request is particularly important in the context of various threats from the media," Jayasuriya said, adding that "forced takeovers" would have "serious international consequences."
Tensions have been building between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe for some time, as the president has not approved some of the economic reforms introduced by the Prime Minister. Sirisena also criticized the investigations of soldiers accused of human rights violations during the long civil war that ended Sri Lanka in 2009.
