The power cut occurred just before the start of the ceremony and was back 10 minutes later, when it was already over. For that reason, TV channels accredited to the parliament could not carry out the live broadcast of the ceremony, the Newswire online portal reported.
Power outages are a frequent occurrence in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, due to a major fuel crisis raging across the country in recent months, but in most cases, blackouts are announced in advance. At the same time, the parliament’s electrical network is expected to have backup diesel power generators in case of external cutoff. However, the generators failed to function during the ceremony, according to the report.
Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has been assigned to investigate the incident, the report says.