President Ranil Wickremesinghe prorogued the Parliament by the powers vested in him with Article 70 (1) of the Constitution with effect from midnight yesterday (26) . He also announced that the fifth session of the Ninth Parliament will commence on February 07 at 10.30 am.
According to subsections (a) and (b) of Article 33 of the Constitution, following the end of one session of Parliament and a new session commences, the President has the opportunity to ceremonially declare open the Parliament and preside over to present the Government’s Policy Statement.
When the Parliament is prorogued, the questions and motions that have not been considered by the Parliament until then will be abolished, and the Members of Parliament thus have to take it up again by the standing orders. Furthermore, all other committees except the Liaison Committee of Parliament, Committee on High Posts, Select Committees, and Sectoral Oversight Committees, should be re-constituted following the beginning of the new session.
The first session of the Ninth Parliament was held from August 20, 2020, to December 12, 2021, and the second session was held from January 18, 2022 to July 28, 2022. The third session of the Ninth Parliament was held from August 3, 2022, 27th January 2023 and the fourth session of the Ninth Parliament was started on 8th February 2023 by the time the session ended midnight today (26), the Parliament had met for 106 days.
