<p>Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka criticised the “deplorable behaviour” of Sri Lankan lawmakers as a second day of violence engulfed the chamber on Friday.</p> <p>“Today Sri Lankans have again seen deplorable behaviour by some MPs, unbecoming of them and of their noble institution,” said James Dauris in a tweet following Friday’s violence.</p> <p>“No parliament can perform its role when its own members stop it from doing so.”</p> <p>The British statement comes amidst a deepening political crisis in Sri Lanka which has left Colombo in political turmoil.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Amidst a second day of violence by lawmakers inside parliament, Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena vowed that he would not prorogue parliament “under any circumstances”.</p> <p>“I urge all Parliamentarians to uphold principles of democracy parliamentary traditions at all times,” he said whilst MPs were throwing chairs and bottles of water mixed with chilli powder at speaker Karu Jayasuriya this morning.</p> <p>“I will not prorogue the Parliament under any circumstances,” he added.</p>

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa accused the speaker of parliament Karu Jayasuirya of being “hand in glove with certain Western embassies” as violence erupted in parliament on Thursday.

Rajapaksa, who oversaw a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in 2009, accused Jayasuriya and the UNP of being in “violation of the provisions in the Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament” by passing a no confidence motion against him in parliament.

“Only the President can appoint a Prime Minister and a Cabinet,” Rajapaksa declared. “The Speaker and Parliament have no role in making such appointments.”

A second day of chaos set off inside Sri Lanka’s parliament as lawmakers hurled chairs, books and water mixed with chilli powder at the Speaker, who had to be shielded by a heavy police escort in the chambers.

Amidst fears of violence spilling into Sri Lanka’s streets and the country’s security forces intervening, international pressure must be sustained, The Guardian argues in its editorial on Thursday.

“The suspicion is that [President Maithripala Sirisena] and his chosen prime minister [Mahinda Rajapaksa] hope to give the impression that Sri Lanka is becoming ungovernable and that fresh elections are the only solution,” the newspaper states.

The Chinese government has expressed its hope that Sri Lanka can maintain stability and deal with the current political crisis.

Responding to a request for comment on the ‘political upheaval’ in Sri Lanka after the Sri Lankan president’s attempt to dissolve parliament was suspended by the Supreme Court and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s position as prime minister suffered a no confidence vote, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday:

The Sri Lankan armed forces announced that it had taken a delegation of foreign military students and their families on a tour of the North-east, where they visited different army bases and were told by the military of how the region was recaptured.

<p>Germany's ambassador to Colombo today criticised the violent scenes in parliament tweeting it was a "bad day for democracy in Sri Lanka."&nbsp;</p> <p>"SL has a long and proud democratic tradition - reading about throwing objects at the speaker and preventing votes is unbecoming of a democracy," Joern Rohde added.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sri Lanka’s parliament descended into chaos this morning as lawmakers loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa violently stormed parliamentary Speaker, Karu Jayasuria’s chair.</p>

India must stand up for democracy in its own backyard as Sri Lanka’s current political turmoil points to China’s increasing role, the Financial Times said in an editorial on Thursday.

“China is again becoming a supplier of political instability” along its strategic ‘string of pearls’ in the Indian Ocean, the editorial board writes, referring to Sri Lanka's recent political crisis.

Thousands of United National Party (UNP) supporters and party members gathered in Colombo today to show their opposition to the replacement of the prime minister and the dissolution of parliament by the president, Maithripala Sirisena. 

Protestors marched with coffins carrying effigies of Sirisena and his appointee for prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, which they burnt at the end of the demonstration.