Need to Strengthen House Rules

Chief of Staff and Deputy Secretary General of Parliament, Neil Iddawala:

Steps have already been taken to revise the Standing Orders. Actually, this is not mainly due to the recent incidents which occurred in Parliament but the amendments had been decided even before.

Even today there are enough provisions in the Standing Orders to suspend sittings of a MP ranging from one, two or three weeks if he resorts to any breach of discipline in the House.

After the recent controversy over the counting of a vote, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya appointed a Committee comprising Opposition Leader R.Sampanthan, Ministers Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Rauff Hakeem and former Speaker MP Chamal Rajapaksa. This Committee in their report has also proposed certain amendments to the Standing Orders. A new Code of Ethics for MPs has also been placed before Parliament. Now we are obtaining the views of Parliamentarians. After obtaining the views of MPs, the Code of Conduct will be presented to party leaders and thereafter it will be presented to the House.