UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila, addressing a press conference in the Parliament complex today, said his group would no longer accept Karu Jayasuriya as the Speaker of a Parliament. 

Gammanpila said their decision was a response to the Speaker's refusal to accept the legitimacy of the purported government headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

The Speaker announced in Parliament that he did not accept the positions of the Prime Minister, ministers, state and deputy ministers and other Parliamentary positions of the ruling party as the UPFA lost two no-confidence motions in the House. 

"Our stand is clear. If the Speaker does not accept our positions, we will not accept his position," Gammanpila said. "If he does not want us once, we do not want him thousand times," Gammanpila said, referring to a famous Sinhala song. 

Gmamapila said the Speaker deprived them of their rightful "seven positions" in the Selections Committee of Parliament. 

Speaker Jayasuriya called for a vote on the composition of the committee this morning when the UPFA, a group that does not have a majority in Parliament, demanded a majority representation in the Committee.