Speaker in a huff threatens walkout 

By Saman Indrajith-May 7, 2014

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa lost his temper in Parliament yesterday and threatened to walk out of the House if both government and Opposition MPs did not abide by Standing Orders during question time.

He took a tough stance against MPs spending too much time on one question and was perturbed by a lengthy answer given by Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion Dilan Perera to a question raised by UNP Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa.

Question time is restricted to an hour, from 1.00 to 2.00 p.m, but more than 20 minutes were spent on the first question itself which angered the Speaker.

The Speaker requested MP Premadasa to keep his supplementary question short but to no avail.

The Speaker then abruptly ended his turn and moved on to the next question.

Rajapaksa repeatedly asked members to keep their questions and answers short and to the point so as to save time, but most members chose to preface their questions with lengthy statements and the answers they received were also long.

Usually, around 15 questions are listed to be asked and answered during the question hour. The Opposition is also permitted to raise three supplementary questions on responses to each of the 15 questions.