Sri Lanka parliamentary Speaker announces resignation

Colombo, Dec 13 (PTI) Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Asoka Ranwala announced his resignation on Friday following days of speculation about him falsifying his educational qualifications.
     “In recent days, a problem with my educational qualifications has been raised in society. I have not made any false statements about my educational qualifications,” Ranwala said in a statement.
     Asserting that he currently does not possess any documents to prove his qualifications, Ranwala said that it would also not be possible for him to obtain these from the relevant institutions.
     “However, in order to stop the inconvenience caused to the government and the people who had placed trust in the government, I have decided to resign from the post of Speaker,” he said.
     The resignation came as the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) signed a motion of no trust against Ranwala, accusing him of misleading the public and the government by falsely claiming to possess a doctorate.
     When the issue raged, the parliamentary website subsequently pulled down the doctorate part from his resume.
     In a meeting with the state-owned media institutions on Friday, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke about the controversy and said the government would not hesitate to take action against anyone, irrespective of their position.
     Ranwala was one of the 159 National People's Power (NPP) members elected after the party's historic landslide victory in the November 14 parliamentary election.
     He had been on the job for less than a month after being elected as the house speaker on November 21.
     Ranwala was a leading trade union activist for the NPP's mother party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), in the petroleum sector as an employee of the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)