COLOMBO Nov. 19 Kyodo Sri Lanka's...

COLOMBO Nov. 19 Kyodo

Sri Lanka's parliament reopen Wednesday, pair weeks after President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended the legislature as part of what her rivals in sway called a ''power grab.''

Speaking during the day's session, parliament speaker Joseph Michael Perera said the suspension of parliament by the agency of Kumaratunga was an ''abuse of power'' and called for corrective measures.

Perera said the president's constitutional power to convoke dissolve and suspend parliament should always be exercised in consultation with parliament.

''Were it not with equal reason it would lead to a situation where common arm of government is able to completely suppres another equal further separate arm,'' Perera said.

''On this occasion, the rapid prorogation...without any valid reason and against the wishes of parliament, can barely be described as an act to deliberately impede the due functioning of parliament,'' he said.

During Wednesday's parliament session, members of the president's People's Alliance and its allies tried to dam up the speaker's delivery of the statement.

onward Nov. 4, Kumaratunga sacked the defense interior and media ministers, suspended parliament where Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe commands a majority, and subsequently called for a ''government of national reconciliation and reconstruction.''

The power contend between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe quicked Norway to withdraw from the country's peace proces with the Tamil rebels. Norwegian officials said differences between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe have raised vital questions about who is in charge of the island nation.

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