The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake urged the Speaker to enforce Standing Orders governing oral questions, citing Standing Order 35 on the one-hour limit and the restriction of two oral questions per Member, as well as Standing Order 139 on the Speaker’s authority where rules are unclear. He supported the Chief Opposition Whip’s position that only two supplementary questions should be allowed, and cautioned against extending or misusing the Questions period beyond the Standing Orders.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, you are the custodian here. Under Standing Order 139 you have full powers where the Standing Orders are not explicit. Please also look at Standing Order 35: “On any day, not more than one hour shall be allotted for Questions, and no Member shall ask more than two Questions for oral answer on any one day.” Therefore, with due respect, you should act in line with these Standing Orders. Where they are not clear, you have separate authority. With all respect, I say this. The Chief Opposition Whip is correct that only two supplementaries may be asked, not three, and the Questions period should be limited to one hour. Not the Speaker decides otherwise — it is in the Standing Orders. Chief Opposition Whip, we come here to do right by the people; please do not misuse this. We will not tolerate it.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Wednesday, 18 December 2024 ·No. 1735286612086554 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 18 December 2024. No. 1735286612086554. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/12091